The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs has announced plans to create thousands of jobs for Saudis in the Mashair train project. Prince Mansour Bin Mit'eb Bin Abdul Aziz, the Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, said there will be a variety of different jobs including some for Saudi engineers who specialize in trains. He made the announcement at the graduation ceremony of 4,000 Saudi youths who have been trained in crowd management and the transportation of pilgrims. The Prince expressed “his happiness over the great response by the youth to work in the Mashair train project”. The Mashair train will have the highest passenger capacity in the world. The train started operating last year at a rate of 35 percent and will be fully operational in this year's Haj. The express train has a high transportation potential, accommodating between 60,000-80,000 persons per hour compared to buses which carry only 10,000 persons an hour. It is one of the most significant projects to be carried out in the service of pilgrims. The train has helped to massively reduce traffic of buses and vans used in transporting those performing Haj. In the past year, 1,200 Saudi youths received training for Mashair railway jobs, and it is hoped that Saudi youths will gradually take over all the jobs in its operation. Prince Mansour expressed his appreciation for King Abdullah's concern for the Mashair railway project. The prince said that the King “has been devoting all his attention to the development projects in the holy sites and the two Holy Mosques to enable the guests of Allah to perform their rituals in ease and comfort.”
