$1.5 trillion Neom City, what was once sold as the promise of a futuristic future, has now been derailed, literally. The kingdom has terminated Webuild’s contract for the Connector High-Speed Line project in Tabuk. It is simply the latest blunt strike in a growing series of cancellations, with the decision taking effect on May 27. The contract still carried a backlog of $1.16 billion, even though work was already 20 percent complete.
The move feels even more significant because this cancellation reportedly brings all of Webuild’s work with Neom to an end. Neom is also expected to reimburse Webuild for costs incurred up to the termination date, including expenses linked to disengagement and demobilization.
In many ways, the decision feels inevitable. According to Reuters, the entire point of the project was to stitch together two of Neom’s most symbolic pillars, Oxagon, its industrial and logistics hub, and The Line, its futuristic linear city.
But with The Line now looking like a shadow of the 100-mile mirrored metropolis once promised, this 57-kilometer stretch of high-speed railway along the northern Red Sea coast suddenly seems far less essential. If completed, the Connector High-Speed Line, comprising two high-speed tracks and two freight tracks, would have supported train speeds of up to 230 km/h while boosting both mobility and business.
It was part of the larger transport vision meant to make life seamless inside Neom’s no-car future, a city planned to span 170 kilometers, measure 200 meters wide and 500 meters tall, and move residents from end to end in just 20 minutes. Now, instead of looking like the backbone of a futuristic transport network, the project feels more like another quiet admission that Neom’s grandest ambitions are being scaled back, and for good.
