Saudi railway passenger numbers surge 266.5% to 156.4 million in 2025

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia’s railway passenger numbers surged by 266.5 percent to approximately 156.4 million in 2025, compared with 42.7 million in 2024, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT). The authority’s Railway Transport Statistics 2025 showed that intracity railway passengers increased by 368 percent to 145.4 million, up from 31.1 million in 2024. Meanwhile, intercity railway passengers declined by 5.6 percent to 10.9 million, compared with 11.6 million in the previous year. On a monthly basis, railway passenger numbers reached their highest level in December at approximately 15.9 million, while April recorded the lowest at 10.8 million. Passenger trains operated 1.4 million trips during 2025, covering a total distance of 42.3 million kilometers.The Riyadh Metro recorded 949,400 trips, covering 26.8 million kilometers. In terms of passenger transport performance, the Haramain High Speed Railway accounted for the largest share at 76 percent, recording approximately 2,743 million passenger-kilometers, despite a 6.1 percent decline compared with 2024. Passenger transport performance on the East Train increased by 8.3 percent to 496 million passenger-kilometers, while the North Train recorded a 6.9 percent increase to 370 million passenger-kilometers. Overall railway passenger transport performance declined by 3.1 percent to 3,609.3 million passenger-kilometers, compared with 3,724.3 million in 2024. **media[2782061]** In freight transport, the total volume of goods transported by rail reached 16.1 million tons in 2025. The North Train accounted for the largest share at 14.4 million tons, representing 89.7 percent of total freight volume, including 5.1 million tons of phosphate, 5 million tons of bauxite, 2.6 million tons of phosphoric acid and 1.7 million tons of molten sulphur. Meanwhile, the East Train transported 1.7 million tons of freight, including limestone, grain and cement, in addition to 915,400 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). Rail freight transport performance increased by 3.6 percent to 17,011.5 million ton-kilometers, compared with 16,427.7 million ton-kilometers in 2024. The North Train accounted for the largest share of total freight transport performance at 96.3 percent, recording 16,374.5 million ton-kilometers, while the East Train reached 637 million ton-kilometers, an increase of 9.4 percent. In operational performance, the Haramain High Speed Railway recorded the highest on-time performance rate at 97.8 percent, followed by the East Train at 96.1 percent and the North Train at 94.3 percent. Freight trains operated 8,885 trips, covering approximately 6.1 million kilometers during the year. According to GASTAT, the annual statistics are based on administrative records provided by the Transport General Authority, alongside spatial modeling used to derive certain statistical indicators.