Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has revealed plans for a $27 billion rail network expansion. The grand project aims to link remote areas with Tel Aviv and may eventually extend all the way to Saudi Arabia.
The announcement comes after recent US official visits to Saudi Arabia, marking potential steps towards formal relations between the Middle Eastern country and the apartheid state.
Amidst the current political instability in Israel, which has disrupted its economy and unsettled its Western allies over the past seven months, Netanyahu is focusing on infrastructure projects, including the “One Israel Project.”
This project aims to reduce travel times to primary business and governmental areas to under two hours.
In his televised address, Netanyahu added stated that the future may make it possible to move goods by rail from Eilat to the Mediterranean and possibly even extend the train service all the way to Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula.
The Finance Minister of Israel, Bezalel Smotrich, expressed optimism that this high-speed rail project, stretching from north to south, could be operational within the next decade.
