LONDON: In 1924, Riyadh was a small oasis town, covering less than one square kilometer and home to no more than 30,000 people. One hundred years ago, the motor car had yet to displace the camel as the primary form of transport and the future capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was still contained within the defensive walls that had encircled it for 200 years. Today, Riyadh is a vast metropolis, the largest city on the Arabian Peninsula.
Ever expanding, the capital is currently spread over 1,500 square kilometers and has a population close to eight million, largely reliant on the car. In 2024, however, Riyadh took a significant step toward an increasingly sustainable future with the opening on Dec. 1 of the first three lines of a revolutionary new driverless metro system linking all parts of the city over 176 km of tracks.
Riyadh’s goal is not only to get bigger, but also to get better, leading the nation in following the blueprint of Vision 2030, the plan to transition the Kingdom away from an oil-dependent economy — and the new mass-transit system will relieve pressure on the roads by removing tens of millions of car journeys every year. A decade in the making, by the end of January 2025 all six metro lines are expected to be open, with 190 trains serving 85 stations, initially carrying 1.2 million passengers a day and with a planned capacity of 3.
6 million. Treasured traces of the city’s past remain. Line 1, the Blue Line, which serves the north-south axis of the .