Riyadh Metro's Red Line Extension to Diriyah Clears Key Milestone

Key facts

The Royal Commission for Riyadh City confirmed on 8 July 2026 that the tunnel boring machine built for the Red Line's extension to Diriyah has completed manufacturing and factory acceptance testing, the last step before the machine ships to Riyadh to begin excavation. The Earth Pressure Balance machine has an 11.16 meter cutterhead and measures 105 meters long.

The extension adds 8.4 kilometers to the existing Red Line, 7.1 kilometers of it underground and 1.3 kilometers elevated, plus five new stations. Two stations will serve King Saud University, one for the main campus and one for the Medical City and health colleges. The remaining three stations will sit in Diriyah, including one designed as a future interchange with the planned Line 7. The Royal Commission for Riyadh City awarded the construction contract in January 2026 to a consortium led by Italy's Webuild, alongside India's Larsen and Toubro, Saudi Arabia's NESMA, and France's Alstom. Once complete, planners expect the ride from STC station to Diriyah to take under 15 minutes, and from King Abdullah Financial District to Diriyah under 20 minutes.

What it means for Riyadh

The Red Line already runs through the Al Hamra district along King Abdullah Road, one of Riyadh's busiest transit corridors and home to an interchange station connecting to the Purple Line. As of the metro's 200 million passenger journey milestone in March 2026, this corridor accounted for roughly 16 percent of total ridership, the second highest share of the six lines behind the Blue Line's Olaya Street run.

Once the Diriyah extension opens, the same Red Line will carry Al Hamra area riders directly toward Diriyah Gate, the restored mud brick heart of the first Saudi capital and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, without a transfer. For Riyadh's cafe scene, that kind of direct rail link tends to reshape casual foot traffic over time. Stations become natural stop off points before or after errands, meetings, or a walk through a heritage district, and orders for a cold milk tea often follow commuting rhythms as much as driving routes. Lucky Tea's Al Hamra store sits in the same district as the existing interchange station, one more sign that the neighborhoods around Red Line stops are becoming as much about where people gather as where they change trains.

Background

Riyadh Metro opened in phases starting 1 December 2024 and reached full service across all six lines by 5 January 2025, covering 176 kilometers and 85 stations. Later that January, Guinness World Records recognized it as the longest fully driverless metro network in the world. Ridership has grown quickly since: the system passed 100 million passenger journeys within its first nine months and reached 200 million by mid March 2026.

The Diriyah extension fits into a wider push to link the metro network to Vision 2030 tourism and giga project sites. A seventh line, still in contracting, is planned to connect Diriyah Gate onward to Qiddiya, King Salman Park, and other new developments west of the city, and one of the Red Line extension's new Diriyah stations is designed from the outset to interchange with it.

Diriyah Gate's own development plans give the rail link a growing destination to serve. Bujairi Terrace, the dining and heritage strip overlooking At Turaif, has operated since December 2022, and the wider Diriyah Gate program is planned to include 566,000 square meters of retail floor space and more than 1,000 outlets alongside nearly 40 hotels, part of a development valued at roughly 63 billion dollars with a 2030 completion horizon.

Takeaway

The Red Line's Diriyah extension is still years from opening, but the tunnel boring machine clearing factory testing marks the project's shift from paperwork to construction. For residents already riding the Red Line through Al Hamra, it is an early signal that a familiar commute will eventually reach one of Riyadh's most visited heritage destinations on a single ticket.