Rashid Al-Fouzan Al-Riyadh It is a widely known fact the Saudi Railways Organization's tracks are in poor condition. Even though the organization only operates a single railway line between Dammam and Riyadh, there is no end to the constant barrage of complaints regarding its poor performance, safety record and maintenance history. Furthermore, we have witnessed deadly accidents and even heard about faults in the Spanish locomotives that the organization plans to use and while investigations have been launched into many of the complaints, no one knows what the investigations concluded. I do not consider the justifications made by the organization to be particularly convincing. For example, when the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nazaha) uncovered a delay in the execution of an SR500 million project to install signals and other safety devices, the organization wasted no time in pinning the blame on a contractor. The contract for the execution of the project was signed five years ago but work has still not begun so, questions that immediately come to mind are: Who approved and accredited the contractor? Who signed the contract? Why was the contractor offered the project despite the fact that it had a history of delaying projects, something which resulted in multiple fines? And finally why did the organization remain silent on the issue for five years? The SRO's duties are by no means difficult, complex or challenging for its management and this can only mean one thing: The problem is with the organization's top officials who sign contracts with unqualified parties that remain unimplemented for years. The Kingdom has ambitious plans to expand the country's railway network and one can't help but wonder how we can trust the organization to manage a network of trains, purchases of locomotives, upkeep of railway lines and implement necessary safety measures when it has shown such gross incompetence? The organization is an affiliate of the Ministry of Transport, which has failed to build a public transport infrastructure in the Kingdom for decades. Without exaggeration, we have become the single country in the world without a public transport network. The Ministry of Transport is living outside the realities of the country and society, something which is caused not due to a shortage of funds but rather due to a lack of good governance and a future vision. Do the ministry and the organization realize that their collective performance is nowhere near the level of support they receive from the government? Do they realize that the country needs a reliable public transport system and this means that all projects should be implemented on time? Clearly we are not on the same page and it is about time all parties realize this.
