2020 Olympic bid could speed up Qatar's rail plans

Geoff Mee, deputy CEO of Qatar Rail.

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Qatar's bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics could mean that the railway network planned for the 2022 World Cup is speeded up.

Qatar Rail deputy CEO Geoff Mee said that the country's railway network has had to take into account a potentially successfully Olympics bid.

“We will need to be testing and commissioning between 2020 and 2021. That completion time will be accelerated if we win the bid for the Olympics by 18 months," revealed Mee.

The $30bn metro system for Doha will be built in four phases. Phase 1A will be ready by 2020 in time for the Olympics, should Qatar win its bid, while Phase 1B will be ready for the World Cup in 2022.

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This latter phase will be 52km long, with 26 stations. Most of the track will be underground, except for the suburban districts, where it will be above ground.

Phase 2 will see the network extended to the greater Doha area and to neighbouring areas. Phase 3 will extend the network to the broader GCC via the Bahrain Causeway.