RIYADH — Minister of Transport and Logistics Eng. Saleh Al-Jasser announced that the Jeddah Sulaymaniyah Central Station of the Haramain High Speed Train station would resume operation on Tuesday. The Haramain Railway connects Makkah and Madinah via Jeddah and the King Abdullah Economic City of Rabigh. In a statement on his Twitter account, the minister said that the operation is scheduled to start from Tuesday, July 13. He stressed the Haramain Railway's keenness to realize the directives of the Saudi leadership to provide a better transportation experience for passengers, including Hajj and Umrah pilgrims. Al-Jasser thanked the wise leadership for their generous approval to repair the Sulaymaniyah station, bearing all costs by the contractor, and subsequently, the project implementation company has completed all repair works well before the upcoming Hajj. The Sulaymaniyah station was out of operation after a massive fire had struck the station on Sept. 29, 2019. The Haramain Train services resumed operation in December 2019 after a halt of two and a half months using the newly built railway station of King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) instead of the one in Sulaymaniyah. Later, the Haramain train service was suspended again following the imposition of travel restrictions due to the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic on March 20, 2020. Finally, the train service resumed operations on March 31, 2021 before the advent of the holy month of Ramadan. The trains started services from KAIA station to the stations of Makkah, Madinah and King Abdullah Economic City, and that were strictly in compliance with the precautionary measures and preventive protocols against coronavirus pandemic.
