Turkiye and Saudi Arabia plan to build a railway link connecting the two countries via Jordan and Syria over the next 3–4 years, said Turkish Minister of Transport Abdulkadir Uraloğlu. The project would enable the transport of goods, oil, natural gas, and passengers between the Gulf, Turkiye, and Europe.
Turkiye and Saudi Arabia plan to build a rail link connecting the two countries via Jordan and Syria over the next 3-4 years, according to Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu.
The statements were made in an interview with Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, following the signing in Riyadh of a memorandum of understanding between Turkiye and Saudi Arabia regarding cooperation in logistics and the railway sector.
The project would create a rail route between Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and Turkiye, with the possibility of a future connection to Europe. In a later phase, other Gulf states would be included in the corridor, including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and possibly Yemen. Uraloğlu also mentioned the possibility of including Iraq in the project.
Rail route between the Gulf and Europe
In the first phase, the rail link would enable the transport of freight, oil, natural gas, and passengers between Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Jordan, Syria, and Europe.
“A train departing from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, already reaches several regions of Saudi Arabia. Therefore, this is a project through which the train would reach Turkiye via Jordan and Syria. We are talking about a route that will transport any type of cargo to Europe,” said Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, as quoted by the international press.
The Turkish minister said that the line from Saudi Arabia to the Jordanian border is already complete. On the Turkish side, the connection extends to İslahiye, Kilis, and Gaziantep in southeastern Turkiye, near the border with Syria.
However, there remains a missing section of approximately 400 km between Syria and Jordan, according to the minister.
Connection for Hajj Pilgrims as Well
In addition to commercial transport, Abdulkadir Uraloğlu stated that the route could also be used by Muslim pilgrims participating annually in the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.
The project is also presented as a potential land-based alternative to maritime routes affected by regional tensions. The Turkish minister said that the new connection could, in the future, mitigate the impact of issues arising from disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most critical maritime routes for oil and gas transport.
Against the backdrop of tensions in the Middle East and disruptions affecting global logistics chains, land transport projects between Asia, the Middle East, and Europe are gaining increasing importance.
USD 100 million to restore the route to Aleppo
Abdulkadir Uraloğlu stated that a financial plan for the project is to be developed.
According to the minister, the investment would include approximately USD 100 million to restore the route between Turkiye and Aleppo, in Syria, which would create a direct link to Damascus.
Turkiye, which shares a border with Syria, has strengthened its relations with the new administration in Damascus following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime at the end of 2024 and has announced that it will support the country’s reconstruction.
Saudi Arabia aims to become a global logistics hub
Saudi Minister of Transport and Logistics Services, Saleh al-Jasser, told Al Arabiya that a feasibility study for the rail link between Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, via Jordan and Syria, is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The project is part of Saudi Arabia’s strategy to become a global logistics hub between Asia, Europe, and Africa, under the Vision 2030 program and the National Strategy for Transport and Logistics.
The memorandum signed between Riyadh and Ankara aims to foster cooperation in the field of rail connectivity and logistics services. The document includes exchanges of expertise regarding rail standards, technologies, infrastructure design, operation, and maintenance, safety, transport integration, and reducing the environmental impact of the rail sector.
A Route with Geopolitical Implications
The project also has a geopolitical dimension. The international press notes that Ankara has presented the corridor as a route that would bypass Israel, at a time when plans to connect India with the Middle East, Israel, and Europe have been hampered by the lack of normalized relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
In 2023, the United States, India, the European Union, and several Middle Eastern states supported the project for an India–Middle East–Europe economic corridor, built around a future normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. However, this prospect remains distant, given that Riyadh is demanding irreversible progress toward a Palestinian state, a demand rejected by the current Israeli leadership.
The new railway route proposed by Turkiye and Saudi Arabia could thus become not only an infrastructure project but also a tool for reconfiguring trade flows between the Gulf and Europe.
Historic Corridor, Modern Challenge
The project would revive, in a modernized form, a historic route connecting Turkiye and Saudi Arabia through Jordan and Syria, with branches that once extended to Lebanon as well.
The new connection could be integrated with Saudi Arabia’s existing railway network, which already reaches the Jordanian border via the Haditha crossing in the al-Jouf region. It could also complement Jordan’s planned railway projects along the north-south axis, as well as infrastructure upgrades in the Aqaba area.
At the same time, the corridor could be linked to broader logistics initiatives associated with the NEOM project, through which Saudi Arabia aims to develop trade routes between Europe, Turkiye, the Gulf states, and Iraq.
According to the Turkish Minister of Transport, details regarding the costs of the Riyadh–Ankara project will be finalized in the coming period.
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