Train drivers on failing high speed line demand more training

DutchNews, March 14, 2019

A Dutch high speed train. Photo: Alfenaar via Wikimedia Commons

Train drivers on the Dutch HSL high speed train route say they are not getting enough training and are threatening to strike if the NS does not act, the AD reported on Thursday. 

The 400 train drivers currently employed on the HSL say their lack of adequate training is increasing the number of malfunctions on the Amsterdam to Antwerp route. Currently there are up to 10 breakdowns a week. 

This means the reliability of the HSL stands at 82%, which is below the legal standard. Other train services have a 92% reliability rate. 

The reason for the malfunctions is a not yet identified problem with the train’s software and, according to the drivers, a multitude of voltage and safety systems which they are ill-equipped to handle. 

Now the FNV train drivers union has drawn up a manifesto, which has been signed by 1,200 people and will be handed over to the NS on Friday. It calls for better training and a monitor on the trains. 

‘The NS has the world’s best drivers but they are given too little time to master the intricacies of the high speed line. And once they drive the train, the support they get is often far below par,’ union official Henri Janssen told the paper. 

The NS said it is taking the complaints of the drivers seriously. ‘Everything they say can be done to improve the situation will be taken into consideration,’ a spokesman said. ‘We have a help desk in place and a team of people to help on the ground. But the uncertainty among drivers shows how complex the line is. Not everything has been properly installed.’ The FNV said strike action may be on the cards if the NS does not listen to the drivers.

UN grants sanctions exemption for Korea railway survey

Yahoo – AFP, 24 November 2018

The two Koreas have agreed to start surveys on reconnecting railways across
the border between North and South

The UN Security Council has granted a sanctions exemption for the two Koreas to jointly conduct a survey on reconnecting railways across their border, a spokesman for the South Korean presidency said Saturday.

The two Koreas last month agreed to start the survey no later than late October and to hold the groundbreaking ceremony sometime between late November and early December, as the countries pursue a reconciliation drive.

But the possibility of the project running up against UN sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear programmes has caused delays.

"It is significant that this project has received support from the United States and international community", said Kim Eui-Gyeom, spokesman for the presidential Blue House in Seoul.

Railway experts from both sides will criss-cross the country on survey trains together, Kim said in a statement, adding that the process will "bring inter-Korean cooperation to a new level".

Yonhap news agency said the South was expected to bring fuel for train locomotives, and other unspecified materials for the survey in the North.

Delivering fuel to North Korea could potentially have been in breach of a UN cap limiting imports to 500,000 barrels a year.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday any inter-Korean rapprochement had to move forward "in tandem" with efforts to denuclearise the peninsula, and could not come sooner.

US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a historic summit in Singapore earlier this year, signing a vaguely worded deal on denuclearisation.

But since then, talks on denuclearisation have stalled, with meetings either deemed unproductive, pushed back or cancelled altogether.

The US and South Korea have launched a working group to make sure that they don't "talk past each other", Pompeo said, as Seoul and Pyongyang appear to be moving ahead with their rapprochement more quickly than Washington and the North are making headway on nuclear disarmament.

A second leaders' summit is expected to take place in early 2019, according to Washington.

In the meantime, North and South Korea have made several concrete decisions on reconciliation and exchanges.

But the implementation of cross-border projects such as the reconnection of railways have been hamstrung by the lack of progress in denuclearisation talks.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in (L) advocates talking to the North's leader
Kim Jong Un to push him to denuclearise (AFP Photo)

Related Article:

Seoul earmarks more than $260 mn for rail, roads in North

Despite shortage of space and staff, no stop to distribution centre growth

DutchNews, March 26, 2018

Photo: Depositphotos.com

New distribution centres covering a record of nearly two million m2 – the equivalent of 400 football fields – were built in the Netherlands in 2017 and still more are planned along the country’s motorways, according to research by broadcaster NOS. 

Many large international companies are queuing up to distribute their products through the Netherlands despite the shortage of land and people to staff them, NOS said.There are currently 53,000 unfilled distribution centre jobs available. 

NOS contacted commercial brokers association NVM Business as well as a number of leading commercial property firms for its report. ‘We are seeing for the first time that  developers are building distribution centres on spec before they have any tenant or buyer in mind,’ said Liesbeth Kramer of NVM Business. ‘Demand is enormous.’ 

Total space covered by distribution centres in the Netherlands has increased by 40% to more than 30 million m2 in the past 10 years. The most are located in Noord-Brabant province, followed by Limburg. 

‘All major high streets from London to Paris  and Germany’s Ruhr region are stocked by warehouses in the southern part of the Netherlands,’ said Joost Uwents, CEO of Belgo-Dutch developer WDP, which is the largest in the Netherlands. 

Uwents, who is a Belgian national, is full of praise for the Dutch government which has supported the logistics sector in a big way. He cites major improvements to the road infrastructure around Rotterdam and Eindhoven as will as upgrades in the rail and inland waterway structures. 

Tax 

The Dutch tax regime – unlike that in in other countries  – also benefits distribution activities as VAT is added only on final delivery of goods, said Richard Elich of property developer David Hart Group. 

And even though the southern part of the country is generally preferred for distribution centres, the parent of Spanish fashion group Zara opted for Lelystad for its new distribution centre.  ‘Quite simply, they settled there because the could get both space and staff,’ Uwents said.

Amsterdam freight train link to China will cover 11,000 km and take 16 days

DutchNews, March 7, 2018

Amsterdam will have a freight train connection with China starting on Thursday. The rail link to Yiwu China from the port’s Amerikahaven is 11,000 km long and will take 16 days to traverse, Trouw said on Wednesday. 

The route passes through Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazachstan and then on to China. Rotterdam has had a dedicated China rail link for two years. 

Chinese president Xi Jinping is investing €400bn in strengthening rail ties to Western Europe to reduce reliance on ocean shipping.  The link – called the One Belt, One Road – follows Marco Polo’s old Silk Road which moved people and goods between the two regions for centuries. 

The train is being operated by Nunner Logistics of Helmond which expects it to be carrying baby and children’s clothing, alcoholic drinks, car parts and luxury textiles to China and largely clothing on the return trip. The container train making the journey will be at least 630 metres long.

Europe casts a wary eye on China's Silk Road plans

Yahoo – AFP, Jacques KLOPP, January 7, 2018

Is the New Silk Road simply a path to prosperity or a Chinese power grab
in disguise? (AFP Photo/NIKLAS HALLE'N)

Paris (AFP) - Depending on who you ask in Europe, China's colossal East-West infrastructure programme is either an opportunity or a threat -- and when French President Emmanuel Macron visits next week, Beijing will be watching to see how keen he is to jump on board.

Since China launched the New Silk Road plan in 2013, the hugely ambitious initiative to connect Asia and Europe by road, rail and sea has elicited both enormous interest and considerable anxiety.

"It's the most important issue in international relations for the years to come, and will be the most important point during Emmanuel Macron's visit," said Barthelemy Courmont, a China expert at French think-tank Iris.

The $1 trillion project is billed as a modern revival of the ancient Silk Road that once carried fabric, spices, and a wealth of other goods in both directions.

Known in China as "One Belt One Road", the plans would see gleaming new road and rail networks built through Central Asia and beyond, and new maritime routes stretching through the Indian Ocean and Red Sea.

Beijing would develop roads, ports and rail lines through 65 countries representing an estimate 60 percent of the world's population and a third of its economic output.

Like traders on the old silk road, modern Chinese companies expect to profit 

handsomely from the $1-trillion revival of the route (AFP Photo/STR)

Macron, who heads to China for a three-day state visit on Sunday, will notably be accompanied by some 50 company chiefs keen to do business with the Asian powerhouse.

So far France has been cautious on the Silk Road plan, but Courmont said Chinese leaders were "waiting for a clear position" from Macron at a time when they view the young leader as an "engine" for growth in Europe.

"If Macron takes a decision on how to tackle the Chinese initiative, all of Europe will follow," Courmont predicted.

But, as Courmont acknowledges, Europe is divided on what to make of China's ambitions.

The continent could potentially benefit handsomely from increased trade over the coming decades, but in some corners there is suspicion that it masks an attempted Beijing influence grab.

"They are notably asking themselves about the geopolitical consequences of this project in the long-term," Alice Ekman, who covers China at the French Institute of International Relations, said of France and Germany.

Win-win?

In Central and Eastern Europe the programme has been met with altogether more enthusiasm, given the huge infrastructure investment that China could bring to the poorer end of the continent.

"Some consider the awakening of China and Asia as a threat," Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a summit in Budapest in November which gathered China with 16 Central and Eastern European countries.

Beijing plans to develop roads, ports and rail lines through 65 countries representing

an estimate 60 percent of the world's population (AFP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

"For us, it's a huge opportunity," he said, with Beijing using the summit to announce three billion euros of investment in projects including a Belgrade-Budapest railway line.

Bogdan Goralczyk, director of the Centre for Europe at the University of Warsaw, noted there were divisions even within eastern Europe, with Poland hesitant due to its right-wing government's "strong anti-communist stance".

Others to the west have made little effort to hide their concern.

Former Danish premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen fretted in a column for Germany's Zeit newspaper that "Europe will wake up only when it's too late, and when swathes of central and eastern Europe's infrastructure are dependent on China."

The former NATO chief noted that Greece -- a major recipient of Chinese largesse -- had in June blocked an EU declaration condemning Chinese rights abuses.

It came just months after Athens' Piraeus port, one of the biggest in the world, passed under Chinese control.

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, is favourable to Chinese investment, but has reservations.

"If we do not develop a strategy in the face of China, it will succeed in dividing Europe," Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned in August.

France is meanwhile seeking to "rebalance" relations with China during Macron's trip, according to his office -- eyeing a trade deficit of 30 billion euros, its biggest with any partner.

"Our Chinese partners would prefer a win-win situation. Why not? On the condition that it's not the same party that wins twice," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday.

"It is not France's intention to block China," he said.

"But we should establish a partnership based on reciprocity when it comes to the opening of markets."

burs-jk/kjl/jh/kaf

China's "One Belt One Road" project is costing $1 trillion and has been billed as a modern revival of the ancient Silk Road --
that once carried fabric, spices, and a wealth of other goods in both directions https://t.co/nhVVYnFWqH pic.twitter.com/UGuZUkxMsw

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 7, 2018

First hydrogen-powered train set for northern Netherlands in 2018

DutchNews, October 12, 2017 

The Coradia iLint train. Photo: Alstom

The northern provinces of Friesland and Groningen and rail operator ProRail are hoping to test run a train powered by hydrogen next year, the Volkskrant said on Thursday.

The parties involved want to determine whether a hydrogen-powered train will prove to be a cheap and sustainable alternative for the diesel trains now operating from the provincial capitals of Leeuwarden and Groningen. 

Most trains in the Netherlands run on electricity but there are no electric overhead lines on the rail network in Friesland and Groningen where the trains are powered by diesel. To switch to electric trains would cost hundreds of millions of euros, hence the potential move to hydrogen. 

The hydrogen-powered train is a realistic alternative for tracks without overhead power supplies, said Wouter Wiersema of engineering consultancy Arcadis which is conducting a feasibility study of the new train. 

But major changes are needed if the diesel engines are to be retired. Storage facilities for hydrogen – a  very light, flammable fuel – will have to be created on trains and in stations. Strong safety measures are vital, said Wiersema. 

The French train manufacturer Alstom is experimenting with a hydrogen-powered train in northern Germany. Once this train, called the Coradia iLint, has been given full safety clearance, it will also be able to travel on the Dutch rail network and the trials can take place, the Volkskrant said.

Modi, Abe get India's first bullet train going as ties deepen

Yahoo – AFP, Jalees ANDRABI, September 13, 2017

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japan's Shinzo Abe shake hands in front
of a Shinkansen bullet train during a 2016 meeting in Kobe (AFP Photo/JIJI PRESS)

New Delhi (AFP) - As India's premier Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe prepare to break ground on the country's first bullet train project Thursday, experts say the collaboration could signal a massive leap for its overburdened and deadly railways.

India's colonial-era rail network carries some 22 million passengers daily, making it one of the busiest in the world. But it is also among the most dangerous.

A government report published in 2012 said almost 15,000 people were killed every year in rail accidents, describing the deaths as an annual "massacre" due mainly to poor safety standards.

Modi has pledged to invest billions of dollars to modernise the country's crumbling railway infrastructure, which is plagued by delays, and the bullet train was one of his key election promises ahead of a landslide victory in 2014.

As New Delhi and Tokyo seek to forge closer ties to combat China's growing regional influence, the project offers a diplomatic and economic boost.

The premiers will lay the foundation for the bullet train network in the western city of Ahmedabad -- connecting Modi's home state of Gujarat with India's financial capital Mumbai.

Japan is a pioneer in high-speed rail transport -- with its Shinkansen bullet train ranked among the fastest in the world.

With projected top speeds of up to 350 kilometres (217 miles) an hour -- more than double the maximum speed offered by the fastest trains operating in India -- it will reduce travel time between the two cities from eight hours to at most three-and-a-half hours.

The new train, which will have a capacity of 750 passengers, is also expected to be safer than the country's creaking rail network, the world's fourth largest by distance.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (right) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi 

visit Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, on September 13, 2017 (AFP Photo/

PRAKASH SINGH)

'Balance China's hegemony'

Modi recently replaced his railway minister after a series of derailments, including one last month in which at least 23 people were killed in northern Uttar Pradesh state. Nearly 150 died in a similar accident in November.

The agreement for the 508-kilometre network was signed in 2016, with plans to make it operational by December 2023.

Nearly 85 percent of the total project cost of $19 billion will be provided by Tokyo in soft loans, with repayment over 50 years.

Abe's visit to Ahmedabad comes ahead of Modi's 67th birthday on Sunday and many have dubbed it as part of his practice of "birthday diplomacy".

The right-wing Hindu nationalist leader hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping in Gujarat on his birthday in 2014.

"India's relation with Japan is designed to balance China's hegemony," Rajrishi Singhal, a Mumbai-based independent policy consultant, told AFP.

India's crumbling rail infrastructure is in desperate need of modernisation, with 

a report in 2012 describing the 15,000 deaths on the network each year as a 

'massacre' (AFP Photo)

The two countries have close security ties and hold regular joint military exercises.

A proposed joint investment of billions of dollars in Africa is set to be the cornerstone of the relationship, Singhal said.

"India truly values the relationship with Japan and we look forward to further boosting our bilateral ties in a wide range of sectors," Modi tweeted Tuesday.

There are more than 1,500 Japanese companies in India, including auto major Suzuki, the largest car maker in the country.

The success of Suzuki and others transformed India's auto industry, which employs millions today.

Experts are pinning similar hopes on the bullet train project.

"Just like Suzuki changed India's car market and brought millions of jobs, the bullet train will change the entire industry," Singhal said.

China hosts Silk Road summit in shadow of North Korea missile

Yahoo – AFP, Yanan WANG, Laurent THOMET, May 14, 2017

China's President Xi Jinping speaks at the opening ceremony of the Belt and
Road Forum, in Beijing, on May 14, 2017 (AFP Photo/Greg Baker)

China touted on Sunday its new Silk Road as "a project of the century" at a summit highlighting its growing leadership on globalisation, but a North Korean missile test threatened to overshadow the event.

President Xi Jinping was preparing to host leaders from 29 nations for the two-day summit in Beijing when US and South Korean military officials confirmed that Pyongyang had launched a ballistic missile.

Delegations from North Korea and the United States were expected at the forum, though not their leaders. Few Western heads of government made the trip.

The summit is showcasing Xi's cherished One Belt, One Road initiative, a revival of the Silk Road that could cement China's growing global clout on trade and geopolitics.

"This is indeed a gathering of great minds," Xi said, addressing leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Xi pledged to pump an extra $124 billion in funds into the initiative, calling it "a project of the century" in a "world fraught with challenges".

Map showing China's ambitious plan to revive the ancient Silk 

Road trade routes (AFP Photo)

The Chinese-bankrolled project seeks to link the country with Africa, Asia and Europe through an enormous network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks.

The initiative spans some 65 countries representing 60 percent of the world population and around a third of global gross domestic product. The China Development Bank has earmarked $890 billion for some 900 projects.

The project is seen as a practical solution to relieve China's industrial overcapacity. But it could also serve Beijing's geopolitical ambitions as Washington retreats into "America First" policies.

While Xi did not mention North Korea during his speech to the delegates, the Chinese foreign ministry issued a statement saying it opposes such missile tests.

It urged all parties to "exercise restraint and refrain from further aggravating the tension in the region".

North Korea relies heavily on trade with China for its economic survival, and US President Donald Trump has urged Xi to use that leverage to put pressure on Pyongyang.

The White House called on all nations to impose "far stronger sanctions" following the latest test, which came days after South Korea elected a new president.

Sunday's missile launch "is absolutely an embarrassment to Beijing but it also shouldn't be overstated", Christopher Balding, economics professor at Peking University, told AFP.

"This will not overshadow (the summit) in an enormous way but it will absolutely continue to raise US frustrations with Beijing," he said, adding that Washington was "frustrated" that North Korea was also invited to the summit.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) speaks with his Chinese counterpart Xi

 Jinping during a bilateral meeting at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, 

on May 14, 2017 (AFP Photo/WU HONG)

Respecting sovereignty

Xi focused on his initiative, boasting that it represented a "road for peace", but he cautioned "all countries should respect each others' sovereignty... and territorial integrity".

He warned that "isolation results in backwardness".

The new financing that he promised on Sunday includes 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) for the Silk Road Fund and lending schemes worth 380 billion yuan. He also urged financial institutions to contribute 100 billion yuan.

Praising Xi's initiative, Putin warned that "protectionism is becoming the norm".

"The ideas of openness, trade freedom are rejected more and more, very often by those who were their supporters not so long ago," Putin said.

For his part, Erdogan said Belt and Road was "going to be the kind of initiative that will put an end to terrorism".

India, whose Prime Minister narendra Modi is seen on May 12, 2017, has voiced 

displeasure at the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a Belt and Road project aimed 

at linking northwestern China to the Arabian Sea (AFP Photo/Ishara S. Kodikara)

Indian concerns

Some Belt and Road projects are raising concerns in certain countries.

India has voiced displeasure at the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a Belt and Road project aimed at linking northwestern China to the Arabian Sea.

The route cuts through Gilgit and Baltistan in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, disputed territory that India claims is illegally occupied.

Human Rights Watch raised fears on Saturday about the treatment of people along the new Silk Road route in Central Asian nations with poor track records in infrastructure projects.

The US-based organisation said Chinese authorities have "heightened surveillance and repression to prevent potential unrest that could impede" Belt and Road plans in the western Xinjiang region.

The train, carrying whisky, soft drinks, baby products and pharmaceuticals,
will take 18 days to make the 12,000-km (7,500-mile) journey

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US 'screwed up' handling of AIIB, says Albright

Dutch to support China-backed Asian infrastructure bank

"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013. They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader. Remember where you heard it... in a strange, esoteric meeting with a guy in a chair pretending to channel. [Kryon being factious... Kryon humor] Then when you hear it, you'll know better, won't you? "Maybe there was something really there," you'll say. "Maybe it was real," you'll say. Perhaps you can skip all the drama of the years to come and consider that now? [Kryon humor again]

These leaders are going to fall over. You'll have a slow developing leadership coming to you all over the earth where there is a new energy of caring about the public. "That's just too much to ask for in politics, Kryon." Watch for it. That's just the beginning of this last phase. So many things are coming. The next one is related to this, for a country in survival with sickness cannot sustain a leadership of high consciousness. There is just too much opportunity for power and greed. But when a continent is healed, everything changes. .."

".. Many years ago, the prevailing thought was that nobody should consider China as a viable player on the economic stage. They were backward, filled with a system that would never be westernized, and had no wish to become joined with the rest of the world's economic systems. Look what has happened in only 30 years. Now, look at Africa differently …”

First 'Silk Road' train from Britain leaves for China

Yahoo - AFP, Robin MILLARD, April 10, 2017

The train, carrying whisky, soft drinks, baby products and pharmaceuticals,
will take 18 days to make the 12,000-km (7,500-mile) journey

The first-ever freight train from Britain to China started its mammoth journey on Monday along a modern-day "Silk Road" trade route as Britain eyes new opportunities after it leaves the European Union.

The 32-container train, around 600 metres (656 yards) long, left the vast London Gateway container port laden with whisky, soft drinks and baby products, bound for Yiwu on the east coast of China.

It was seen off on its 18-day, 12,000-kilometre (7,500-mile) journey with a string quartet, British and Chinese flags, and speeches voicing hope that it will cement a new golden age of trade between the two countries as Brexit negotiations loom.

The first train from China to Britain arrived on January 18, filled with clothes and other retail goods, and Monday's departure was the first journey in the other direction.

The rail route is cheaper than air freight and faster than sea freight, offering logistics companies a new middle option.

After the last three containers were lifted onto the wagons, the driver gave a thumbs-up and tooted his horn as he got the train rolling at the port in Stanford-le-Hope, east of London.

"Restoring the ancient Silk Road as a means by which China, north Europe and now the UK can exchange goods is an important and exciting initiative," said Xubin Feng, the chairman of Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment, which is co-running the service.

"We have great faith in the UK as an export nation and rail provides an excellent alternative for moving large volumes of goods over long distances faster."

Nine countries in 18 days

The train will go through the Channel Tunnel before travelling across France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan before heading into China.

The containers, which also contain vitamins and pharmaceutical products, will be taken off and put on different wagons as they leave Poland, as the former Soviet Union countries use a wider rail gauge.

The containers switch back to standard gauge wagons at the Chinese border, an operation that typically takes around two hours.

Boosting trade with China is a top priority for Britain as it leaves the EU and becomes free to strike its own trade deals.

London was hailing the first export train as part of its "global Britain" plan, recalibrating its post-EU trading outlook.

Rupert Soames, Prime Minister Theresa May's business ambassador for infrastructure and transport, told AFP that the new route was "positive and timely".

"I genuinely think that this is quite an historic day," said Soames, a grandson of World War II prime minister Winston Churchill.

"In some quarters now, globalisation is seen as a bad word. But here you see trade in all its glory and possibilities."

China was Britain's seventh-biggest export market last year, behind the United States, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland and Switzerland.

Some £13.5 billion of trade headed to China, according to UK government statistics, with an average annual growth rate of 12.9 percent since 2006.

In terms of imports, China is Britain's third-biggest market after Germany and the United States, with trade worth £35.8 billion last year.

The freight train is part of China's "One Belt, One Road" programme announced in 2013, reviving the ancient Silk Road trading routes to Europe. 

Metro aims to break new ground in car-mad Qatar

Yahoo – AFP, David Harding, March 9, 2017

Construction site of a new metro line in Qatar's capital Doha (AFP Photo/
Karim Jaafar)

Doha (AFP) - Qatar's metro, once completed, will run hundreds of kilometres across ultra-modern Doha, along the coast and into its expanding suburbs. But whether car-mad Qataris will actually use it remains an open question.

Driverless three-car trains are to serve 100 stations, easing into gleaming newly-built destinations with names such as Ras Bu Fontas, Al-Shaqab and Legtaifiya.

Now the main task for those behind the approximately $18-billion project -- in a country where car is king -- is to ensure it draws enough passengers to justify the huge outlay.

"We are not a culture that is used to the metro, not like Europe," said Khaled Al-Thani, a civil engineer with Qatar Rail, the state-owned company responsible for the metro.

"This is all new for us."

The Doha Metro is a massive venture even by the standards of the energy-rich Gulf desert emirate where infrastructure mega-projects are commonplace.

Officials at Qatar Rail are cagey about terming it the world's biggest ongoing engineering project, preferring to call it one of the largest.

Since ground was broken in the summer of 2013, a workforce of 41,000 has been digging, tunnelling and building. Large tracts of land in Doha have been set aside for a network of tunnels and stations.

Tunnel boring world record

Qatar even set a world record for using 21 tunnel boring machines at the same time in November 2015, the highest number ever recorded.

Ninety percent of the metro will run underground when operational. The station designs have been approved by the emir himself, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Qatar's metro, once completed, will run hundreds of kilometres across ultra-modern 

Doha, along the coast and into its expanding suburbs (AFP Photo/Karim Jaafar)

Qatar Rail says its target is to have completed 70 percent of the network by the end of 2017, with the opening due in late 2019 or early 2020.

"With metros in other developed countries, when they develop a metro they introduce a new line, but for us in Qatar, we're introducing a whole network system," said Khaled Al-Thani.

Probably the most symbolic part of the Doha Metro will be a station around 20 kilometres north of the capital.

Lusail, the final stop on the Red Line, will serve the $45-billion city emerging from the desert that will be the venue of football's 2022 World Cup final.

"We are actualising a vision," said Abdulla Abdul Aziz al-Subai, managing director of Qatar Rail.

Gridlocked Doha

The company has begun holding special classes for Doha residents to make them aware of the metro and to encourage them to use it.

"I'm very confident that the metro will be a hit," said Thani on an upbeat note.

"It takes me approximately one hour every day to go to work. So, with the metro you have a safe and dependable transportation to reach from point A to point B."

The target is to remove 190,000 cars a day off Doha's heavily congested roads.

A report from the Qatar Mobility Innovations Centre (QMIC) found that commuters spent an average of 109 hours in traffic on the country's roads in 2016.

That was an increase of seven hours over the previous year and equivalent to around $1.5 billion in losses for the Qatari economy, according to QMIC calculations.

Many question whether Qataris will swap their beloved cars for public transport, and say foreign workers -- as in Dubai -- are more likely to fill the carriages.

The country's population could rise to 3.6 million by 2031, from 2.6 million today, and Qatar Rail wants 1.65 million people at year to be using the metro by that time.

"To change this culture, it will take time," said Abdulla Alsayed Zahran, a manager with Qatar Rail.