MADRID: A high-speed railway linking Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, which has been plagued by delays, will finally start operating in September, the Spanish consortium building the project said Thursday. The railway linking Islam’s holiest cities, which was initially scheduled to open at the end of 2016, had a cost overrun of 210 million euros which Saudi Arabia has agreed to pay, the Al-Shoula consortium added in a statement. It will begin operating in September with four trains per week, before offering daily service by September 2019. Saudi Arabia in 2011 awarded the contract worth 6.7 billion euros to the consortium of 12 Spanish companies and two Saudi firms for the project which aims to improve transport between the two cities during the annual hajj pilgrimage.
