IARO Upcoming Events - Brussels and Hong Kong
IARO’s forthcoming programme offers two important opportunities for members to meet, share expertise and promote airport-rail connectivity internationally.
The IARO 2026 Air-Rail Conference and Networking Meeting, hosted by Brussels Airport on 7-8 October, will combine site visits, presentations and panel discussions on high-speed rail connections, technology and systems integration, and airport design and development. Participation is free for IARO members, although advance registration is essential.
Registration Available Source article
IARO will then participate in Super Terminal Expo, Hong Kong, from 3-5 November. On Wednesday 4 November, IARO will organise a 90-minute Air-Rail Forum featuring presentations and a moderated panel discussion on airport-rail links. Members interested in speaking or joining the panel should contact Patrick at patrick@iaro.com (mailto:patrick@iaro.com) . IARO will also have an exhibition stand, available as a meeting point for members and stakeholders, helping raise the profile of airport-rail connectivity within the international airport and transport community.
Dubai – it’s all happening!
The sketch below is diagrammatic but as accurate as we can make it.
Published information on the planned Blue Line is contradictory: we contacted the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA), whose Customer Happiness Department was unable to give more clarity. Solid lines are those physically completed: dashed lines are those which are planned – read on!
In April, the RTA invited consultants to bid for a contract to study and design a 55-kilometre Airport Express Line linking Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC – at one time branded Dubai World Central) (khaleejtimes.com) . The proposed line would run from the Red Line Metro station at DXB (there are actually two!) to DWC in Jebel Ali and include five stations (khaleejtimes.com) . Consultants were allowed until June to submit their proposals.
The line could offer passengers facilities such as remote airline check-in, baggage drop-off and security screening at stations, pointing to a wider airport-rail travel concept beyond a traditional metro service. Dubai has approved the City Terminal Project under the Dubai 10X Initiative, aimed at allowing travellers to complete check-in procedures across the city before heading to the airport (see IARO Express 672).
A new passenger terminal at the airport with an eventual capacity of 260 million travellers a year has been signed off, with construction costs expected to reach Dh128 billion ($34.8 billion). The development comes as Dubai plans to expand rail connectivity at DWC, which is set to play a major role in the city’s future aviation.
DWC is also being designed with its own underground train system, while earlier plans included a 14-station automated people mover to transport passengers between terminals and concourses.
The proposed Airport Express Line is separate from the planned extension of the Route 2020 Metro line to DWC’s West Terminal. IARO has never understood why this extension was not built at the time of the Expo 2020: it is good to see that it’s coming soon. It was originally part of the Red Line.
The Dubai Metro Gold Line is also being planned, creating a multimodal interchange that planners say is essential if DWC is to take on the long-haul traffic currently handled by DXB. Construction of the 42-kilometre Gold Line begins next year, with both rail projects scheduled to open alongside DWC’s first concourses in 2032.
The Gold Line is a Dh34 billion project that will serve more than 1.5 million residents in what is the largest transport project in the emirate's history. The 42km underground line will connect 15 communities, extending the network by 35%. It is due to open on September 9, 2032. The Red and Green Lines opened on 9 September 2009 – 09-09-09.
Long-term plans to transform DWC into a 260-million-passenger super-hub took a further step on 7 May when Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths revealed that phase 2 of the airport’s terminal will include a station on the Etihad Rail network. This will connect the new terminal to Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and other emirates, cutting overland transfer times and reducing reliance on road transport. The airport will have a dedicated station box adjacent to the airport, allowing easy interchange between high speed rail and the terminals.
Moreover, DXB is set to close permanently in 2035. All commercial flight operations (ibtimes.co.uk) will transfer to DWC. The Dubai (ibtimes.co.uk) Media Office has confirmed that Al Maktoum International Airport will have a maximum annual passenger capacity of 260 million, a figure that dwarfs the throughput of any airport currently in operation, including the current Dubai International Airport which handled around 95.2 million passengers in 2025 - a volume which is pushing against its structural limits.
DXB Airport Terminal 3 station. The city-bound platform is in the foreground: upper right is the line from the city.
The transition from Dubai International Airport to Al Maktoum is expected to begin in 2032, when DXB hits its operational maximum of 114 million passengers annually. While a transition may begin around 2032, the full completion of the Al Maktoum project is not expected until 2057.
The current thinking is that when DXB gets to a point (ibtimes.co.uk) where enough capacity has been created at DWC to make the complete transition, every single service will be moved from DXB to DWC.
Al Maktoum International Airport will have five parallel runaways and up to 400 aircraft gates. Besides 260 million passengers, the new airport will be equipped to handle 12 million tonnes of cargo annually. Overall, DWC will be five times the size of DXB, set to cover 27 square miles when completed.
Air taxis are expected to be more widely used by the scheduled opening of the DWC expansion, connecting key business and tourism areas of Dubai with the airport.
Cargo and logistics operators anticipate smoother air-sea-rail integration around Jebel Ali port.
Dubai’s planned 50km Blue Line will enhance connectivity within the Emirate, but despite an over-enthusiastic media report, will not serve DWC (although it will serve DXB, possibly using the Red Line tracks and stations or its own station).
IARO Express 675 report4ed on progress with the Etihad Line.
Sources Khaleej Times (khaleejtimes.com ), Visa HQ (visahq.com ). The National News (thenationalnews.com ), Digital Dubai (digitaldubai.ai ). Gulf News (gulfnews.com ), MSN (msn.com ), Dubai Airports (media.dubaiairports.ae ) and the IARO database
Tanger to have railway between airport and high speed rail station
Tanger will have a rail connection between its high speed rail station and the airport. Al Boraq station is at one end of the country’s high speed line connecting Tanger and Casablanca: it is some 15km from Ibn Battuta airport.
At the end of 2024, the state railway ONCF commissioned INECO and CID to undertake feasibility studies for a passenger rail service connecting central Tanger with the football stadium and the airport.
A year later, it was announced that the head of government had validated the public utility of the line, permitting expropriation procedures. This decision, signed by the Minister of Transport and Logistics, transforms the plans into land reality: the construction equipment now has a free path to create a corridor through the prefecture, an investment of more than 2.1 billion dirhams.
The line will connect the Al Boraq station in the city center to the airport, but it will also be an economic backbone. It will serve the industrial zone with a new station at Aïn Dalia, skirting the Tanger Tech city. The route will then run along the Sidi Hssaine dam, cross the wholesale markets and the new bus station, before making a stop at the Hassani complex, the gateway to the Grand Stadium of Tanger.
This will streamline air access and prepare the infrastructure for the global sporting events that the Kingdom is about to host.
Sources bladi.net (en.bladi.net ) Modern Railways
Dakar airport line – no opening date yet
At the end of December, it was reported that commercial services on the 19km second phase of Dakar’s Regional Express Train (TER) – an extension to the airport - would start in the first half of 2026. As far as IARO can see, they haven’t.
The report said that APIX-SA, Senegal’s public agency responsible for the development and delivery of major infrastructure projects, had completed system integration testing on the Dakar–Blaise Diagne International Airport (AIBD) section The tests covered traction power, signalling, rolling stock and infrastructure and confirmed interoperability across the airport branch. This step closes the system integration stage on the Dakar–AIBD corridor.
The work remaining before passenger operation can start consists of performance testing and speed trials. These will be carried out in line with regulatory requirements and international railway standards, under the supervision of the National TER Company (SENTER), acting as railway safety authority.
Plans for the line to the then new airport go back over a decade. In 2016, Alstom was selected as the preferred rolling stock supplier, with trains being ordered later that year. Preferred construction bidders were also selected. The first train was delivered in 2018, with the first test run along the first phase being completed the following year (see IARO Express 464).
The first phase of the line, the 36km Dakar – Diamniadia section, opened at the end of 2021 and is operated by SNCF subsidiary Seter using 15 4-car Alstom units. The airport station was completed in 2023.
Sources Railmarket.com (railmarket.com ), Railway Gazette International and the IARO database
Temporary closure of Dutch HSL
At the beginning of the year, it was announced that the northern section of the HSL-South high-speed line in the Netherlands, which connects Amsterdam and Schiphol Airport with the Belgian border, will close for three months in 2028 to allow major repair works to be carried out on four of the 10 defective viaducts.
The line opened in October 2006. Trains are currently limited to 120km/h on the section between Rotterdam Central and Hoofddorp, which is designed for operation at up to 300km/h. Infrastructure manager ProRail has confirmed that during the closure, IC Direct, EC Direct and Eurostar services will be diverted through Leiden and The Hague. Until then, current operating arrangements, including the speed restrictions, will remain in place.
Speed limits were imposed on the line in July 2023 following the discovery of cracks in 10 viaducts between the northern portal of the 8.7km Green Heart tunnel and the junction at Hoofddorp where HSL-South joins the conventional network. The structures were found to be “too light” to handle 300km/h operation, with cracking caused by a combination of weak ground conditions, typical for the west of the Netherlands, and the forces exerted by passing trains. The line is expected to remain subject to significant speed restrictions until at least 2031. Repair works are estimated to cost around €580m. ProRail says it is aiming to reduce disruption by progressively restoring higher speeds section by section as works advance from south to north.
In September 2025, ProRail signed a six-year framework agreement worth €25m with three engineering companies to design repair solutions for nine of the 10 viaducts affected. The work began immediately due to the urgency of the situation, and designs are expected to be completed by the end of this year. The contract includes options to address any additional infrastructure issues and to implement measures intended to avoid further corrective interventions for up to 80 years. The 10th viaduct will be handled under a separate programme.
The Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure launched legal proceedings in August 2025 against construction consortium Hollandse Meren, which it holds responsible for the design and construction faults. The consortium includes Boskalis, Ballast Nedam, Volker Wessels Stevin and Vermeer. The ministry is seeking compensation not only for repair costs but also for wider damages, including compensation paid by operators to passengers for delays and cancellations.
Compensation claims from high-speed operators Netherlands Railways (NS) and Eurostar are estimated to run into several tens of millions of euros, although the final figure has yet to be determined.
A Eurostar e320 on a London – Amsterdam service
Source International Railway Journal (railjournal.com )
World Cup over: LAX people mover still not ready
Officials at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) had hoped to greet thousands of FIFA World Cup spectators with a fully functioning automated people-mover that would run high above the airport’s traffic loop and take them to a shiny new transportation centre. But the people mover — a crucial missing link in the region’s rail network — has yet to transport a single passenger.
Three years after its planned 2023 opening date (youtube.com) , the SkyLink system remains bogged down in technical issues and legal disputes. Among other problems, the contractor hired to design and build the system has accused the governing body of LAX, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), of imposing numerous “blockers” that have delayed the train’s opening. In a report dated June 15 (ca-times.brightspotcdn.com) , the system contractor — LAX Integrated Express Solutions (LINXS) — said LAWA project impediments include airport landscaping work, approval delays and impacts from other projects. Because of this, LINXS projected that passenger service would not begin until at least early October.
“The safety and absolute reliability of the SkyLink train are our highest priorities as we progress toward passenger service. Rigorous, exhaustive testing of all tracks, signalling systems, and vehicles is the standard industry practice for major airport transit infrastructure to guarantee seamless long-term system integration. We will not compromise on these stringent safety protocols, as delivering a system that safely, dependably, and durably serves Los Angeles and our upcoming global events is our primary focus,” LAWA said in a statement when asked for comment on SkyLink’s status.
The $3.34-billion train project is part of a larger $30-billion package of upgrades to LAX. A major factor in the train delay is a series of disputes between LAWA and LINXS, the latest of which involves a $36 million claim (laist.com) over repair work that LINXS says is not its responsibility. In April, LAWA announced (latimes.com) that testing would finally begin on the rail line. As part of that testing, the train must run 30 consecutive days without a problem before it can accept passengers. This requirement has yet to be met. The first phase of testing was supposed to start the week of April 20 (see IARO Express 678).
When SkyLink opens to the public, its fully automated trains will arrive every two minutes during the peak hours of 9:00 – 23:00, with an estimated end-to-end time of 10 minutes. Its 4km track services six stations. Three are within the airport, and the remaining three connect passengers to the Economy parking and Ground Transportation Center as well as the LAX/Metro Transit Center Station and the LAX Rental Car Center.
Looking ahead, hopes remain high for the SkyLink to be operational for Super Bowl LXI in 2027 and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028.
Large sporting events, like the Olympics, have inspired major pushes to L.A. infrastructure before. The second level of the horseshoe-shaped road around the LAX terminals was added in preparation for the 1984 Olympics.
In mid-July, the contractor for the train (latimes.com) filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles as part of ongoing disputes with the airport over project delays. LINXS accused LAWA of concealing facts about delays in order to shift blame to the contractor, changed drawings that altered the scope of the plans and created barriers to move forward.
The completion date for the train has been repeatedly pushed back due to disagreements between LINXS and LAWA over compensation and timeline. Officials hoped the train would be running by the start of the World Cup (latimes.com) , providing a crucial test run ahead of the 2028 Olympics, but it was not ready in time. Testing is underway without a clear completion date.
LINXS blamed LAWA for extensive delays. In one example, a power outage in 2025 delayed progress for 141 days. The suit claims that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) was responsible for the outage but LAWA blamed LINXS “even though LAWA knew that it and LADWP were responsible.” The contractor also accused LAWA of altering roadway drawings “so that LAWA could attempt to declare (wrongfully) that developer’s work in certain areas is complete, such that LAWA’s other contractors could work in those areas.”
IARO Express 678 had an earlier report.
Source LA Times (latimes.com and Source article )