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RIYADH: Railways play a vital role in advancing connectivity between industrial clusters to help support economic development in the Kingdom, Vice Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources for Industrial Affairs Khalil bin Ibrahim bin Salamah told the Saudi International Rail Exhibition and Conference in Riyadh.

He added that one of the key responsibilities of the railway network was the transportation of raw materials to manufacturing facilities as well as finished goods to ports and cities.

He said: “To develop national industrial capabilities, and enhance Saudi’s industrial global competitiveness, we have launched specialized industrial clusters focused on transforming raw materials into high-value-added products.”

These clusters are then integrated through the advanced railway network, creating an ordered ecosystem.

The development of the railway manufacturing sector and localization of technologies then opens major investment opportunities, such as in products like locomotives, signaling systems, and wheels.

Junaid Khan, engineer and commercial manager at Metrolinx, spoke about using value engineering to create the ideal framework for innovative technologies while simultaneously cutting costs.

Khan said that all teams must be engaged from the start and that the design team and operational team, for example, needed to discuss their input in the first stage of a project.

He also emphasized the need to look ahead, to have a “life cycle perspective.”

When asked how to build flexibility in a major project without driving up additional costs, Khan argued that “clients are usually specific in what they want … that is not the way to go.”

The answer was to be given performance-based specifications, from which the design and operation teams could come up with a cost-effective solution, life cycle evaluations which included both operational cost and capital cost, setting up contingency planning and targeted back-up reserves.

Khan added that artificial intelligence and emerging digital technologies could enhance these steps and reduce waste by providing smart value decision-making through more accurate predictability at each stage, such as clash detection and asset management.

In terms of cybersecurity and crisis management in metro systems, especially when introducing new innovations, Alaa Khaled, global ambassador for the Global Council for Responsible AI and cybersecurity director at Maaden, said: “In general, when people think about a crisis, they think it is far away.”

In the case of COVID-19, for example, she said no one expected a crisis of that scale to emerge, adding: “We need to be prepared for every possible scenario.” This would include disaster management, recovery plans, and many practice trials.

Martin Jackson, health, safety, environment, and quality director for Capital Metro Company, said that the systems were very stable and that the challenge was in ensuring widespread community understanding.

“(This applied) especially in a new environment like the Kingdom,” he added, saying that while people were used to driving vehicles such as cars and buses, a completely automated metro system was quite novel.

Jackson said: “Like everything in the world, however, technology sometimes falters.” In that case, staff were equipped to put passenger safety first, and asset protection second.

When asked how to balance efforts to increase digitalization of assets with cybersecurity, Khaled responded: “We do not want a slow metro system, or a heavy one.”

Comparing it to a mobile phone, the interface was sure to start to lag if overcrowded with too many applications.

Khaled said that points of connection must be separated and that information technology and operational technology must be disconnected from internet connectivity, for example.

She added: “So, if a hacker attacks the Wi-Fi, it will not bring down the whole system.”

The global ambassador also expressed her preference for using a hybrid system that employed both an open-source model and a vendor model for making efficient innovative technologies, and added: “An open source internally and a vendor source externally.”

On Riyadh Metro, Jackson said it was still in the “fledgling” stage of operations.

“Our biggest stakeholders are our customers,” he said, indicating that with major upcoming events in the Kingdom like the AFC Asian Cup in 2027 and the FIFA World Cup in 2034, the country was committed to optimizing the railway.

Jackson added: “The great thing about our metro is it is a closed system. We do not have to worry about an external attack; we only worry about failures.

“Railways have been around for 150 to 200 years … and we (as people) can be wary of change, but predictive analytics enables us to understand innovation and modern technology versus risk factors.”

Jackson also pointed out that the metro uses in-house learning language models, allowing operators to understand the data without having to put it out in the world.

A significant development at the conference was the signing of an agreement between the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts and the Saudi Railway Company to showcase traditional Saudi arts within national transport, empowering local artisans through joint workshops, programs, and other cultural initiatives.

The new partnership hopes to highlight the richness of traditional arts in the Kingdom.