Railway projects are slow in coming due to their extent, cost and the need to plan in advance with the long term in mind.

But Etihad Rail in the UAE is well under way. This network which will eventually be 1,200km long will connect the major population centres across all the UAE. When completed in 2018 it will connect the UAE to Saudi Arabia in the West and Oman in the East as part of a link to the rest of the GCC. The project is expected to cost Dh40 billion, the service will initially cater for freight and passenger services will follow. This sounds logical as passenger traffic will need more time to pick up due to the reluctance of people to abandon their cars in favour of the more economical and safer public transport. But the success of the Dubai Metro system should give a good indication of people’s desire for frequent and reliable services where journey times and cost are reduced. The project will have a social impact as it will ease the mobility of people and bring them together in addition to its economic impact and contribution to a diversified economy. Most importantly it will improve the safety of passengers and goods by reducing traffic on the roads and contribute to a noticeable reduction in energy requirement and improve the environment.

The oil and gas industry in the UAE will probably be the first beneficiary of the railway project. The first phase will link up Habshan gas processing facilities with Ruwais in 2013 with an extension to the Shah gas processing facilities in 2014. These two locations are expected to produce 22,000 tonnes of sulphur every day and two trains a day will transport the sulphur to Ruwais 266 kilometres away. Imagine the hundreds of trucks these two trains will replace just by transporting the sulphur and the enormous quantities of diesel fuel that will be saved by the improved efficiency with its concomitant reduction of emissions and improvement of the environment. Adnoc is among the first major companies to sign with Etihad Rail for the use of the railways in addition to DP World for the intermodal transport terminal in Jebel Ali which will facilitate the handling and transport of some five million containers in 2030. Currently all containers in the UAE are handled by trucks and the railways will reduce to a large extent the need for trucks especially between cities. The same goes for building materials given their heavy nature and the distance that they sometimes have to travel.

Energy saving

The environment and energy saving part of the project will come from the reduction of fuel that would have been used by trucks instead of the more efficient diesel traction units or electrified railways.

Recently the International Energy Agency and the International Union of Railways (UIC) published a report highlighting the environmental advantages of railway transport.

Technical progress has made railway transport more efficient and the report notes that “railways have improved energy efficiency significantly over the last two decades by filling trains more effectively and deploying more fuel efficient rolling stocks.” Therefore, “in 2009, 13 per cent less energy was needed to move a passenger over a kilometre and 19 per cent less energy to move a tonne over a kilometre, compared with railway figures from 1990.”

With respect to climate change and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions the railways seems to contribute to these emissions. At the same time emissions have increased since 1990 for all modes of transport except from railways.

The transport sector is responsible for nearly 23 per cent of energy-based CO2 emissions worldwide. In 2009, while road transport was responsible for 71 per cent of total CO2 emissions from the transport sector, the railways produced only 1.8 per cent of the total.

In 2009 in Europe six per cent of total passenger transport is by rail compared with 8.1 per cent by air but the share is expected to increase with the introduction of high-speed trains. The railways share of freight is seven per cent compared with about 38 per cent by water. But these numbers are far higher in other countries such as Russia, China and India. However, the UIC estimate world growth in 2010 over 2009 to be 3.4 per cent measured in tonne-kilometres for freight and 3.5 per cent in passenger-kilometres reflecting the recovery of the world economy and the development of rail traffic in Asia.

The UAE railways may be diesel-driven initially but I hope electrification will be planned for a later stage which will be greatly advantageous regarding efficiency, safety and the environment. In 1990, only 30 per cent of railway lines were electrified but this increased to 53 per cent by 2009. Mind you, around 80 per cent of rail transport is now powered by electricity.

— Saadallah Al Fathi is the former head of the Energy Studies Department, Opec Secretariat in Vienna