Abu Dhabi’s Union Railway Co. has begun the procurement process for a roughly $11-billion rail network that will span the United Arab Emirates. Bids for a contract to design and build the fixed infrastructure are due this October.
计划在2018年完成，1,300公里的网络将是海湾国家的第一个网络。联盟首席执行官理查德·鲍克（Richard Bowker）表示，该项目将是“世界一流的”。
Construction on the 240-km first phase, which is scheduled to open in 2013, will run between Gweifat, near the Saudi Arabian border, and Ruwais, west of Abu Dhabi city. Ruwais is the site of the U.A.E.’s major oil refineries and other industrial installations.
该线路将沿着海岸，塔里夫（Tarif），在哈伯汉（Habersham Oil Field）附近，然后穿过阿布扎比（Abu Dhabi）的西部地区，到达大型石油和天然气开发的Shah遗址。
Most of the network is to be located in Abu Dhabi emirate, but it will link to the port of Jebel Ali in neighboring Dubai. Tracks will also go through the emirates of Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.
Bowker说，该网络的主要目的是将商业和工业中心与海港和机场联系起来，但也有乘客服务以及阿布扎比和迪拜之间专用的通勤线的计划。
Bowker declines to put a value on the engineering contract; he says he wants bidding firms to “sharpen their pencils.” Contracts would be placed by the end of the first quarter of 2011, he added.
据信联合铁路已邀请大约10个小组出价。鲍克说：“我们没有宣传公开的资格资格。”“我们邀请了我们直接认为有资格出价的公司清单。”
Bowker took over at Union Railway last summer after a period as chief executive of London-based rail-and-bus company National Express Group. Before that, he chaired the U.K. government’s now defunct Strategic Rail Authority.
联合铁路的努力与其他阿拉伯国家的类似铁路项目一起进行。新利18备用网址沙特人将很快开设一条2500公里的南北线，阿曼和巴林正在开始自己的项目。新利18备用网址
“You will be able to run a train from Muscat [in Oman] through Abu Dhabi to Saudi [Arabia] right up to the Jordanian border, then through to Turkey and Europe proper,” forecasts Bowker.
