TRAIN TRAVEL IS COMING TO THE GCC

BY MARTIN KUBLER, CHIEF SLOTH AT

the drinks trolley while a chap orders an entire minibar. You can walk to the restaurant car or the bar and have a meal or a drink you like. You don’t have to be there 2-3 hours before departure, and it doesn’t take you ages to get from an airport into the city. You arrive and you’re bang in the middle of whatever action it is your destination has to offer. One of the greatest things is to take the night train to Venice and embark just steps away from St. Marcus Square, leave the station, rub your eyes, and go “Ah! Venice!”.

where’s the connection to hotels and restaurants here? Having a hotel close to the airport was yesterday. Tomorrow’s hotel should be close to the central train station. Running a restaurant? You’ll want a branch in or just outside a major train station. A contact of mine, who runs an expanding fast-food franchise in Europe, has just completely changed strategy from expanding via malls to growing via train stations. It makes sense, because at least in Europe, there are more train stations than malls.

time for breakfast with an old friend.

I like trains. I have always liked trains. Sure, I’ve flown hundreds of flights, but even the finest business class flight can’t compare to first class train travel. On a train, the seats are wider and so are the corridors. You can get up without the fear of getting stuck behind

Relatively soon, if recent media features are to be believed, you’ll be able to do that in Dubai, too. Hop on a train, enjoy, step out and go “Ah! Riyadh!”. Well, it doesn’t have the same ring to it as Venice, but the principle is the same. Train travel is coming to the GCC and both, the KSA and the UAE government, recently announced that, regular trains aside, there will be special luxurious trains for scenic routes and traveling in style. Think Dubai Metro Gold Class, but tons better.

Right, you might say, but

Additionally, we all know the hotel chains that have private jets and yachts. One of them rhymes with “Hive”, the other one doesn’t really rhyme with anything useful. Once we have a GCC-wide rail network, will we see hotel chains creating private trains?

Will the GCC rail network be connected to Interrail? If so, let’s prepare for an influx of backpackers.

Mostly, though, I think train travel will really boost tourism in many GCC countries. There’s currently very little incentive for someone who spends a week in Dubai to fly to Doha for a day or even further to Riyadh. Once trains are an option, people will think about the scenic journeys that await and the luxury that abounds on such long-distance lines.

For others, it’ll mean a quicker connection to friends and families in other parts of the GCC. Standard train travel is often cheaper than flying and indefinitely more comfortable than taking a bus. It feels like the arrival of trains in the GCC is going to open the next chapter of tourism and that’s not even looking at it from a sustainability angle (which most regional governments increasingly do). It’s a matter of hassle-free traveling. Think taking the Eurostar from London to Paris. Sure, boarding takes slightly longer now that the UK isn’t in the EU anymore, but it’s still only a fraction of an airport check-in.

The GCC is lucky in that the countries are building the most modern railroads currently possible, so highspeed connections will be the standard. I recently took a train from Munich to Berlin – a distance not too dissimilar to traveling from Dubai to Doha. It took 4 ½ hours. I had WIFI. I had legroom. I was able to order my favourite food right to my seat at a time of my choosing. And it was 3 hours faster than taking the car and about an hour faster than taking the plane.

I firmly believe that with an expand that are currently underserved and, because there’ll surely be more train stations than airports in the region at some stage in the future, that’s a business niche worth looking into and adapting to.