The Haramain train from Makkah to Madinah: is it worth it?

The Haramain high-speed line runs Makkah to Madinah, calling at Jeddah, King Abdulaziz airport and KAEC. The journey is about two and a half hours. By road it is closer to five.

I have done that leg both ways, more than once each. For most people, most of the time, take the train.

What it is good at

It is fast, and it is on time. Two and a half hours, city centre to city centre, at up to 300km/h.

It is comfortable. Reclining seats, air conditioning, toilets, and proper luggage arrangements: overhead racks for hand luggage and dedicated bays at the end of the carriage for the big cases. Economy is genuinely fine, and I say that as someone who has sat in it after a long night. Business gets you more room, a quieter carriage, and a light meal and a drink brought to your seat, which on the Madinah leg lands at about the right moment.

It is predictable. No traffic, no driver who wants to stop, no negotiation about the price halfway. You know when you will arrive, which matters more than it sounds when you are trying to make Maghrib in the other city.

The stations are good. Both are modern, clean and easy to move through. Makkah's station is a short drive from the haram.

The two situations where it is not the answer

When your party is large and your luggage is larger. Six people with Zamzam, gifts and a fortnight of suitcases will find a private coach easier than a train plus two taxis at each end. It is the carrying and the transfers that wear you down, and once you add them the time saving shrinks to almost nothing.

When you are travelling at an awkward hour. The service does not run all night. If your flight lands late, or you want to leave straight after Fajr, a car goes when you want it to.

Booking it

Book ahead on the official Haramain site or app, especially in Ramadan and Hajj season, when trains sell out. Fares vary by time of day. You will need your passport details.

Do not book a Friday train if you can avoid it. The line itself runs fine; the problem is everything around it. Roads in both cities clog before Jumu'ah and stay clogged afterwards, so the taxi to the station and the taxi from it are the parts that go wrong. People miss Friday trains sitting in traffic far more often than they miss any other departure. If Friday is unavoidable, travel early in the morning or well into the evening.

Getting on is easier than people expect

There is no airport-style security. No bag scanners, no belts, no taking anything out. You scan the QR code from your booking at a gate, go up to the departure floor, and wait there. Boarding is downstairs on the platform, and the train comes in about thirty minutes before departure.

Thirty minutes at the station is comfortable. An hour is unnecessary.

What it costs

Economy is typically in the region of 150 to 250 riyals per person one way, business roughly double, and both move with demand. Comfortably less than a private car for one or two people, and comfortably more than a car for a family of six.

Compare it honestly against a car for your specific party size rather than in the abstract. For two people the train usually wins. For six it often does not, and I will tell you so.

Zamzam

Ask us, or ask the operator, close to the date. What is permitted and how it is enforced has changed more than once, and it can differ between stations and between staff on the day, so anything written here months in advance is a guess dressed up as a fact.

What does not change is the carrying. Whatever comes with you goes across the concourse, up to departures, down to the platform, and into a taxi at the other end. If you are bringing a lot back, that is worth thinking about regardless of what the rules turn out to be on the day — and it is often the thing that decides the train-or-car question rather than the price.

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If you are travelling with us, the intercity leg is already arranged either way, and we book whichever genuinely suits your party rather than whichever is easier for us.