Saudi women to run trains on PNU campus

For the first time in the history of Saudi Arabia, Saudi women will take over command of trains on Princess Noura University (PNU) campus. Thirty-nine young women have completed their professional training abroad to take up the new job on the world’s largest women-only university campus. Firyal Al-Kurdi, assistant director general of the company that is tasked with operation and supervision of the campus metro, said that the women had received a 90-hour special training from a number of countries. “There were four training courses held in Britain, Denmark and Italy during a 40-day period, which were supervised by specialists. They are now undergoing additional training inside the Kingdom,” she said. The women supervisors and staff will take over their job soon at the Kingdom’s only university with a driverless metro on campus. The PNU-APM (Automatic People Mover) is an innovative transportation system built to ease the movements inside the PNU campus in a very safe and comfortable way. In the first phase of the project, which started during the last academic year, the trains are being operated manually by train captains on board. Once the project switches onto full automatic, driverless operations in the second phase, Saudi women staff will take up command. Construction Products Holding Company (CPC) successfully executed the 14-km-long automated transportation network project, which is friendly to the environment. Once completed, the system will have a length of 11.5 km with 14 stations. Referring to the job specifications of the new women staff, Al-Kurdi said they would be tasked with daily inspection of the train coaches, checking engines, giving signal to leave the station, collection of passenger details, giving guidance and assistance to passengers, and deal with emergency situations to ensure their safety.