Jordan and UAE Advance Aqaba Port Railway Project

The Aqaba Port Railway is at the centre of a $2.3 billion infrastructure partnership agreed by Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. The deal marks the formal start of a new freight corridor project. This is reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.

The project is intended to modernise Jordan’s logistics backbone and integrate the country’s heavy industry more fully into global supply chains. It is an equal partnership. One side is Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investment platform L’Imad Holding.

The other is a Jordanian consortium of sovereign and industrial entities. That consortium includes the Jordan Phosphate Mines Company and Arab Potash Company. It also includes the Government Investments Management Company and the Social Security Investment Fund.

Aqaba Port Railway route and project scope

The scheme includes a 360-kilometre railway network. It will link primary phosphate mines in Shidiya to the Port of Aqaba’s industrial terminals. It will also connect the potash production sites in Ghor Al Safi to those terminals. The plans also call for an extensive array of tunnels and bridges. Those structures are needed to carry the line through Jordan’s rugged topography.

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The railway is intended to serve as the foundational phase of Jordan’s National Railway Network. The wider roadmap envisions a northward extension toward the Madounah area near Amman. It would then move onward to Syria, the Mediterranean, and Turkey. The roadmap also includes links to Saudi Arabia and broader Gulf Cooperation Council markets. That wider scope was reported by Railway-News.

Cargo volumes, investment framework and timeline

Once in operation, the new network is expected to handle around 16 million tonnes of cargo a year. That includes 13 million tonnes of phosphate and 2.6 million tonnes of potash. The shift from road to rail is expected to drastically cut per-unit transportation costs. It is also expected to have significant economic implications for Jordan’s mining sector.

The agreement is part of a broader $5.5 billion investment framework. That framework was first established in late 2023, according to Railway Supply. It was established under the instruction of His Majesty King Abdullah II and UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Officials said in Petra that financial closure is expected by early 2027. Construction is set to span five years.

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