By: OrePulse

Saudi Arabia Railways signed a series of procurement and financing agreements at the InnoTrans 2026 rail trade show in Berlin, ordering 33 heavy-haul freight locomotives, 782 freight wagons, and 10 passenger trains, along with deals to build domestic manufacturing capacity for rail components.

The state-owned carrier, known as SAR, finalized the contracts during the exhibition, which concluded September 26, and first announced the locomotive order on September 22. The freight locomotives are EMD SD70ACS units built by Progress Rail of the United States, engineered to withstand harsh desert conditions. Once delivered, they will lift SAR's total EMD locomotive fleet above 150 units.

The 782 freight wagons will come from Greenbrier, also based in the United States. SAR did not disclose pricing for the freight portion of the deal.

For passenger service, SAR arranged financing for 10 new trains built by Switzerland's Stadler. The financing package includes Swiss Export Risk Insurance, along with KfW IPEX-Bank, Commerzbank, and UBS Switzerland. France's Alstom Transport will provide technical support and maintenance services under a separate agreement.

SAR Chief Executive Dr. Bashar bin Khalid Al Malik said the locomotive purchase would expand the carrier's capacity to serve mining and industrial customers.

"This agreement marks a strategic step in strengthening SAR's freight capabilities and expanding phosphate transport operations on the North Railway," Al Malik said. "The addition of 33 locomotives will enhance fleet capacity and operational readiness, enabling us to meet growing demand from the mining and industrial sectors with greater reliability and efficiency. It also supports knowledge transfer, national capability development and local content, advancing the objectives of the National Transport and Logistics Strategy and Saudi Vision 2030."

The new locomotives are expected to serve primarily on the North Railway, which carries phosphate shipments, as the carrier looks to keep pace with rising freight volumes from the mining and industrial sectors.

Progress Rail and SAR also signed a memorandum of understanding covering the localization of rail maintenance and lifecycle services inside the kingdom, along with workforce development, supply-chain opportunities and planning for future fleet needs.

Separately, Al Malik oversaw two additional memoranda of understanding targeting the localization of brake-system manufacturing and maintenance, with partners Estenad, Shenyang and Knorr-Bremse. SAR described the agreements as covering the transfer of technology and knowledge needed to build and maintain braking components and spare parts domestically.

SAR also reached partnership agreements with Japan's Hitachi Rail and Turkey's AstraG, though it did not disclose details of those arrangements.

Minister of Transport and Logistics Services Saleh Al-Jasser, who chairs SAR's board, oversaw the contract signings. SAR framed the Berlin agreements as part of a broader push to widen its international partnerships and modernize infrastructure, tying the effort to Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Transport and Logistics Strategy.