Saudi Arabia and Turkey move to revive historic Hejaz Railway
Turkey and Saudi Arabia have signed new agreements to advance plans to revive the historic Hejaz Railway, a long-dormant Ottoman-era line that once connected Damascus to Medina and formed a key regional transport link across the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula.
Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu visited Riyadh this week to sign memorandums of understanding with Saudi officials focused on railway connectivity and logistics cooperation. The agreements include joint studies and planning to restore and upgrade rail links between the two countries, with wider regional integration in mind.
The revival plan envisions reconnecting Turkey to Saudi Arabia through Syria and Jordan by first restoring the line between Turkey and Aleppo, then re-establishing the Aleppo–Damascus–Jordan corridor. This would rebuild the historic route of the Hejaz Railway, which originally opened in 1908 but was heavily damaged during World War I.
Saudi Transport Minister Saleh al-Jasser said feasibility studies are expected to be completed by the end of the year. He described the project as a step toward improving regional integration, boosting trade, and building a more sustainable overland transport system across participating countries.
The initiative is part of broader regional efforts involving Turkey, Syria, and Jordan, which recently signed a trilateral transport agreement in Amman to modernize and reconnect their rail networks.
Beyond regional connectivity, Turkish officials have framed the project as a way to reduce dependence on vulnerable maritime routes, especially after disruptions affecting key shipping lanes such as the Strait of Hormuz. Ankara has also outlined long-term ambitions to extend the railway toward the Gulf and possibly as far as Oman, linking it to global trade corridors.
