Six Gulf states signed a framework agreement on Sunday to complete a railway network linking Kuwait to Oman, the most concrete move yet to build land routes around the effectively closed Strait of Hormuz. Transport ministers signed the General Agreement for the GCC Railway Project at Al Zahir Palace in Manama, with Bahrain's Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and GCC Secretary-General Jasem Albudaiwi present [1][2]. The pact creates a common operating framework — harmonised technical standards, operational compatibility, safety requirements and joint oversight through the Gulf Railway Authority — rather than funding construction itself [2].

The planned network runs 1,768km from Kuwait through Saudi Arabia to Bahrain, with branches to Qatar and the UAE and on to Oman, according to the GCC General Secretariat; Bahrain's transport minister put it at about 2,100km [1][2]. Albudaiwi said the network is 55.9% complete, with full operations targeted for December 2030; passenger trains are designed for up to 200km/h and freight for 80-120km/h [2]. The UAE's national railway is already running, Oman's 238km Hafeet Rail link to Abu Dhabi is due to begin trials in 2027, and Bahrain would join via the proposed King Hamad Causeway to Saudi Arabia [1]. The deal follows an October Saudi-UAE memorandum on cross-border freight [2].

The Hormuz war is the explicit backdrop. Bahrain's Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Sheikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, told The National that difficulty passing the strait had cut ship calls at Khalifa bin Salman Port, pushing Bahrain toward Jeddah, Sohar, Duqm and Fujairah plus road haulage [1]. The National noted Iran's de facto blockade of the strait and its attacks on ships it describes as using unauthorised routes [1].

For oil flows the pact changes little today. Rail carries containers and freight, not the crude volumes that move by sea through Hormuz, and full operations are years away. IMF PortWatch's latest print still shows one vessel transiting the strait on Nov. 1 against a pre-crisis norm near 85 a day, and no maritime authority has confirmed Iran's weekend claims that two to three tankers struck mines and burned. The railway is a hedge against a prolonged closure, not evidence of a reopening.