$1.7bn Makkah metro is put to the test.

SAUDI Arabias new Mashair Railway, which links the holy sites of Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifa with Makkah, is undergoing a 30-day trial before it is inaugurated for the upcoming Haj pilgrimage season

Built at a cost of SR6.5 billion ($1.73 billion) and also known as the Makkah Metro, the new railway will transport as many as 72,000 pilgrims in an hour. A total of nine stations have been built in the first phase, with Arafat, Mina and Muzdalifa each having three stations. Deputy minister of municipal and rural affairs Habib Zain Al Abidine said the metro would have ten 300-m-long trains in …