(31/01/2023)
The 34 engineers have started driving the trains of the Haramain High Speed Railway, the line that connects the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The incorporation to Renfe KSA has been carried out after a training process that began in March 2022. After joining, the workforce of this professional profile now amounts to 140 professionals, almost a quarter of them women.
Previously, this ninth generation of local train drivers has received a training program in the country, similar to the one taught in Spain. The first part, which began on March 13, 2022, consisted of a theoretical-practical cycle of 1,157 hours, on basic railway concepts, knowledge and infrastructure signaling system, traffic and safety regulations, and technical aspects of the train, among others.
The second, with 674 hours of practice, began in August of last year, with trips in the cabin with Renfe supervisors and accompanied driving. All the candidates passed the areas evaluated in this cycle.
Six of the 34 new train drivers were part of the Renfe KSA staff, where they performed tasks in other areas, such as station services or train on-board personnel. The initiative launched by Renfe to select this first generation of train drivers generated great demand. 28,000 submitted to the call for the selection of these profiles, of which 14,000 passed the first phase of the process and took a face-to-face exam at the Saudi Railway Polytechnic facilities in the city of Qassim.
Regarding the profile of the new professionals, the average age of this group of workers is 26.8 years and 73 percent have university studies. The average of male promotions is 28.1 years old and 31 percent have higher education.
local machinists
The training that Renfe has designed to incorporate the 34 new train drivers joins other courses that the operator has launched for personnel in this country. Between 2013 and 2014, the first drivers were trained at Renfe’s Professional Technical School of Driving and Operations in Madrid. Later, after the agreement signed with Saudi Railway Politechnic to provide theoretical training at its Qassim facilities, this collaboration was extended. To date, the operator has trained 96 local train drivers and another 44 are in the training period.
Along with this type of profile, in addition, Renfe KSA has hired and trained more than five hundred Saudis for the Commercial, station and on-board departments, and Operations. Currently, the operator of the Haramain High Speed Railway, in which Adif and Ineco also participate, has more than 1,300 direct workers at its service, almost all of them Saudi nationals.