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Transport in Saudi Arabia is facilitated through a relatively young system of roads, railways and seaways. Most of the network started construction after the discovery of oil in the Eastern Province in 1952, with the notable exception of Highway 40, which was built to connect the capital Riyadh to the economically productive Eastern Province, and later to the Islamic holy city of Mecca and the port city of Jeddah. With the economic growth of the 1970s, of Saudi Arabia has initiated many infrastructure development projects across the country, and the extensive development of the transportation network has followed suit in support of various economic developments.
Roads
thumb|Traffic on Medina Road in [[Jeddah]]
thumb|King Fahad Road in [[Buraydah]]
History and overview
In 1921, King Abdulaziz introduced the first car in Saudi Arabia. Cars eventually supplanted camels as the main mode of transport in the Kingdom in the 1950s, with a major uptick in car ownership occurring in the 1970s. The roads of Saudi Arabia gradually became the defining feature of the kingdom's transport system as the main population centres are not only scattered all over the country but also because they faced a major challenge from the geography of the country itself; separated by deserts, valleys and mountains, among other landforms. Due to this, a reliable road network became more important and essential than other modes of transport in the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia had encouraged road transport in the past by maintaining one of the lowest petrol prices in the world. Despite raising prices in 2018, it is worth noting that due to limited alternative passenger transport options in the country, the gasoline fuel demand is relatively inelastic to its prices; light-duty vehicles dominate the passenger transport landscape. Buses and other public transport options are limited, and walking or bicycles are hindered by the urban landscapes and harsh weather in most regions of the country.
The development of the Saudi road network can be divided into two major phases; i.e. the expansion of the modern road network from 1938 to 1970, preceding the initial development plans conceived by the Ministry of Transport and Logistic Services, and the development and expansion after the introduction of the plans (after 1970). The two stages, pre-national planning and postnational planning, relate to the historical circumstances of the economic, political and social demands of the kingdom. The activity during the second stage greatly exceeds that during the first owing to the existence of coordinated plans, high investment and concentration of effort.
|-
| colspan="5" |Note(s):
- Highway number(s) in bold indicate that the route is not part of the Saudi highway network.
|}
Most of these highways are two-lane highways, and some of them are not separated by median strips. The Ministry of Transport has been working on a project to gradually modernize these roads. Highway 10 currently holds the record for world's longest straight road, with the section from Haradh to the Batha' border with UAE cutting through the Rub' al-Khali desert, beating the previous record holder, Australia's Eyre Highway, by . On 19 February 2018, the speed limit on sections of Highway 5, Highway 15, Highway 40 and Highway 65 was increased from 120 km/h (75 mph) to 140 km/h (87 mph).
Rail
History and overview
thumb|Map of the historic Hejaz railway|245x245px
The first railway line in the kingdom predates the unification of Saudi Arabia. The 1,050 mm (3 ft 5<sup>11</sup>⁄<sub>32</sub> in) narrow-gauge Hejaz railway, that ran from Damascus to Medina, began construction in 1900 under the Ottoman Empire Hejaz Vilayet, and was completed in 1908. A proposal to further extend the line to Mecca was made, but was never materialized. The southern portion of the line was mostly destroyed during the World War I. A few sections of the track remain, with some sections in Jordan being used up to today. The stations in Mada'in Salih and Medina have been converted into museums (Hejaz Railway Museum and Mada'in Salih Railway Station), each having some locomotives and rolling stock from the original railway.
The first railway line built and completed under Saudi rule was the Dammam-Riyadh line, which began construction in 1947. It was inaugurated on October 20, 1951, by King Abdulaziz. This was before the formation of the Saudi Railways Organization (SRO), and the railway line was run and maintained by Saudi Aramco, before being entrusted to the Ministry of Finance. On May 13, 1966, a royal decree established the SRO, a public corporation that now runs the line. The main railway stations for passengers opened in Riyadh, Dammam, and Hofuf in 1981. The modern passenger line between Riyadh and Dammam measuring was completed in 1985.
The other conventional railway line in the kingdom is the North–South line, also known as the Riyadh–Qurayyat line, which runs from the capital Riyadh to border with Jordan at Hadithah via Buraidah, Ḥaʼil and Qurayyat, with feeder lines to multiple phosphate mining and bauxite mining locations in the northern parts of the kingdom. The largest feeder line connects the main line to the port city of Ra's Al-Khair, near Jubail, giving the line a total length of more than . The only high-speed railway line in the kingdom, the Haramain High Speed Railway, was completed in 2017, and connects the two Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina via the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah and the King Abdullah Economic City near Rabigh. In addition to these three major airports, several smaller airports, providing both domestic and international connections, are present throughout the kingdom, such as the Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Medina and the Taif International Airport in Taif among others.
thumb|A [[Saudi Aramco Aviation Boeing 737 aircraft at Shaybah]]
The Saudi Arabian flag carrier, Saudia, began operations in 1945 with a single twin-engine Douglas DC-3 Dakota gifted by President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt. Today, the airline operates a fleet of over 140 aircraft, transporting more than 34 million passengers annually to 95 destinations worldwide. In 2023, Riyadh Air was established as the country's second flag carrier.
Saudi Arabia is also served by several low-cost airlines, including Flynas and Flyadeal. In addition to these public carriers, Saudi Aramco operates its own private airline, Saudi Aramco Aviation, which manages a fleet of seven aircraft and multiple helicopters. The company maintains its own terminals at various locations and uses the airline primarily to transport employees to remote sites such as Shaybah, Yanbu, and Tanajib.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Airports of Saudi Arabia, by runway length (2003 est.)
! colspan="2" |Airports with paved runways
|-
!Runway length
!Number of airports
|-
|over
|32
|-
| to
|13
|-
| to
|12
|-
| to
|2
|-
|under
|2
|-
|Total
|61
|-
! colspan="2" |Airports with unpaved runways
|-
!Runway length
!Number of airports
|-
|over
|6
|-
| to
|5
|-
| to
|75
|-
| to
|38
|-
|under
|14
|-
|Total
|138
|-
! colspan="2" |Heliports (2009 est.)
|-
| colspan="2" |9
|}
In 2019, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) launched the first commercial helicopter that will serve to transport customers within the major Saudi cities and to take them to different tourism destinations.
In 2019 Saudi Arabia had 103 million air passengers.
Ports and waterways
thumb|[[Jeddah Islamic Port]]
History and overview
Historically, the area that is now Saudi Arabia was situated close to one end of the Silk Road, and the ports here made the many tribes in the region wealthy as they profited off the spice trade. Saudi Arabia is one of several countries without any rivers, however there are several wadis spread throughout the country that fill up during the rainy season of winter. However, due to their unstable nature, they are neither classified nor used as waterways. The Jeddah Islamic Port was the main gateway to pilgrims making the journey to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina before the advent of jet aircraft, and is said to have been given that status by the third Rashidun caliph, Uthman. One of the first ports built under the kingdom was located in Khobar, and was used to transport petroleum to Bahrain. The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) was founded in 1976 as a government agency to oversee and maintain the kingdom's ports, and it currently maintains nine ports throughout the kingdom. Several other ports are not maintained by Mawani but by other entities, such as the King Abdullah Port in the King Abdullah Economic City near Rabigh.
Detail
Like all states in the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia does not have any rivers or inland waterways. This has not stopped the kingdom from pursuing the development of a water transportation network, primarily constructed to support the transport of petrochemicals. The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) runs and manages the major ports in the country, overseeing their operations. There are some other ports in the kingdom managed by other entities, such as the King Abdullah Port. The largest port on the Persian Gulf, the King Abdulaziz Port, is located in Dammam.
Ports
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Ports managed by the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani)
!Name
!City
!Located on
!Terminals
!Berths
!Capacity (containers)
!Area
|-
|King Fahd Industrial Port
|Yanbu
|Red Sea
|3
|34
|210,000,000
|
|-
|Jeddah Islamic Port
|Jeddah
|Red Sea
|5
|62
|130,000,000
|
|-
|King Abdulaziz Port
|Dammam
|Persian Gulf
|4
|42
|105,480,000
|
|-
|King Fahd Industrial Port
|Jubail
|Persian Gulf
|5
|34
|70,000,000
|
|-
|Jubail Commercial Port
|Jubail
|Persian Gulf
|4
|16
|36,000,000
|
|-
|Ra's al-Khair Port
|Ra's al-Khair
|Persian Gulf
|5
|14
|35,000,000
|
|-
|Yanbu Commercial Port
|Yanbu
|Red Sea
|2
|12
|13,500,000
|
|-
|Duba Port
|Duba
|Red Sea
|3
|6
|10,000,000
|
|-
|Jizan Port
|Jizan
|Red Sea
|1
|12
|5,000,000
|
|-
| colspan="7" |Sources:
|}
Public transit systems
left|thumb|A SAPTCO bus in [[Medina|248x248px]]
The Saudi Public Transport Company, known by its abbreviation (SAPTCO), established in 1979 by a royal decree, operates a fleet of more than 4,500 vehicles with multiple routes throughout the kingdom. It transports approximately 8 million people monthly between the major cities of the kingdom. In addition to the transnational routes, SAPTCO also operates 10 international routes which transport approximately 500,000 people between the kingdom and the neighbouring Gulf states. SAPTCO operates special bus services during the Hajj pilgrimage, which carry approximately 15,000 pilgrims between the holy sites.
SATPCO buses are gender-segregated.
thumb|Taxis in front of King Fahd Mosque in [[Dammam, 2008]]
thumb|Green Taxi in [[Riyadh, 2024]]
Taxis are available in all major cities of the kingdom, in addition to the presence of private companies that offer vehicle hiring services, such as Uber and Careem (which is a subsidiary of Uber), and ChaCha Taxi, a locally known provider focused on accessible and reliable transport. A reflection of gender inequality, men travelling solo may sit in the passenger seat, but women are expected to sit in the rear seat. Before the reform in early 2020, Women had also been required to be accompanied by a male relative or another woman.
- A three-line project called Medina Metro in extension to the public transportation master plan in Medina, announced by the MMDA in 2015 but works hasn't started yet.
- The Jeddah Metro, is a proposed metro system in the city of Jeddah, announced in 2013 but works hasn't started yet.
Economic impact
The development of a road network plays an important role in the economic development of a country and therefore, the mileage of paved roads existing in a country is often used as an index to assess the extent of its development. The proper development of transport road network not only reduces the cost of transportation both in terms of money and time but also helps in the integration of various regions within the country and better understanding of neighbouring countries at the international level. The transport road network in Saudi Arabia contributed to the development of the country by bringing in direct benefits from its role in the development of some sectors such as minerals, agriculture, industry and commerce.