Recently, in the dawn of Abu Dhabi, a high-speed train specially designed for desert heat slowly departed. With the unveiling of Abu Dhabi City Bus Station by the UAE President, this oil kingdom has officially declared its entry into the era of railway passenger transport. The Etihad Railway, a national trunk line carrying the dream of interconnectivity among Gulf countries, has finally moved from blueprint to reality with the deep participation of several Chinese enterprises.

The multinational army fought fiercely for 605 kilometers

This transportation artery with a total length of about 900 kilometers, the second phase of the project is 605 kilometers long, crossing the complex terrain from desert sand dunes to the eastern Hajar Mountains. In this years long construction, the Chinese legion has demonstrated astonishing collaborative combat capabilities.

China Railway Construction Corporation's China Civil Engineering Corporation (CRCC) has taken on the most complex geological sections of sections B, C, and D, and has opened 9 tunnels with a total length of 6.9 kilometers in mountainous fault zones. Its DMA10+400 bridge has even been listed on the UAE's new 100 dirham banknote. China Construction Middle East took the lead in winning the A section, laying a solid foundation for the starting section. Faced with summer temperatures exceeding 50 ℃ and 150 meter high flowing sand dunes, the Chinese enterprise team set an astonishing record of laying 7.2 kilometers of steel rails in a day.

Full chain Made in China Debuts in Gulf

The Etihad Railway is not only a physical connection, but also a centralized export of the entire Chinese rail transit industry chain. The passenger internal combustion multiple unit that flies on the road is tailor-made by CRRC Sifang Co., Ltd., with a maximum speed of 200 kilometers per hour, specially designed for wind and sand resistance and high temperature resistance.

The three most important core hubs along the route - Abu Dhabi Station, Dubai Station, and Fujairah Station - were designed and constructed by China Railway International, perfectly integrating Arab architectural aesthetics with modern green and energy-saving concepts. The deep integration of Chinese and European standards, from rail laying, bridge and tunnel construction, to station electromechanical systems and vehicle maintenance, has trained the first batch of local railway technical talents for the United Arab Emirates.

The Golden Channel reshapes the regional map

With the first trial operation of the Abu Dhabi to Fujairah section on June 30, 2026, the originally 3-hour journey has been compressed to 1 hour and 45 minutes. Keywords: the Belt and Road news, railway infrastructure

According to the plan, the Dubai site will be put into operation on September 30, 2026. After the full network is completed in March 2027, it will connect 11 cities in 7 major emirates. This railway not only fills the gap in the national passenger railway of the United Arab Emirates, but also serves as a core part of the Gulf railway network, greatly improving the logistics efficiency and personnel convenience in the Middle East region, laying a solid foundation for the deep cooperation between China and Arab countries.Editor/Gao Xue