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Spanish railway company Talgo announced on Sunday that it has been awarded the contract to manufacture and maintain 20 new high-speed trains for Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR) for the Haramain High Speed Railway connecting the cities of Mecca, Medina, and Jeddah.
The €1.3 billion ($1.54 billion) order will increase the company’s order book to a record high of nearly €6 billion, it said in a press statement.
The contract was awarded by the Ministry of Transportation and Logistics and Ministry of Finance through the Saudi Spanish Train Project Company (SSTPC), the Spanish consortium in charge of the Phase II of the Haramain High Speed Railway project of which Talgo is a member.
Currently, SAR has a fleet of 35 'Talgo 350' trains with a maximum commercial speed of 300 km/h. These 35 trains were delivered in 2018 and are maintained by the company.
Each train consists of two power cars (locomotives) and 13 coaches with a capacity of 417 seats distributed in two classes, in addition to dedicated spaces for catering and passengers with reduced mobility.
The current fleet operates more than 100 services on a typical day, a number that jumps to more than 140 daily services during the annual Hajj pilgrimage season, according to Talgo's press statement. In 2025, nearly 2 million passengers were transported during Hajj.
With this new contract, Talgo will be responsible for maintaining all the trains that will make up the expanded fleet - the 35 existing trains and the 20 additional ones - until 2033, with the possibility of extending the contract until 2038.
The company also operates two maintenance facilities in Saudi Arabia, employing more than 270 people.
SAR said in a social media post that delivery of the trains will begin in 2028 and complete by 2031, noting that the new trains will increase the total fleet capacity to 30 million seats per year.
The Haramain Railway line is 450 kilometers long with a maximum commercial speed of 300 km/h and ERTMS level 2 signaling.
In December 2025, Saudi Arabia and Qatar signed an agreement to implement a high-speed railway project linking the two countries.
In September last year, the Kingdom started the tendering process for the Qiddiya high-speed rail project under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. The project aims to connect King Salman International Airport, King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) and Qiddiya City.
(Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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