New metro cuts through Saudi social divisions

For decades, civil servant Zayed Al Ghamdi's social circles in Saudi Arabia were more than predictable, bound by routine and kinship in a country where societal divisions have rarely been challenged.

- 

Then came the metro.

A decade after breaking ground, Riyadh's gleaming new metro opened in December, offering the capital's eight million residents an alternative to roads chronically clogged by its two million cars.

A quicker commute is not the only difference: For the first time, the wealthy are sharing journeys with the less well off, and Saudi nationals are mixing with the large expat population, from white-collar workers to labourers.

"For 40 years, I was confined to my car or restaurants with my father and brothers, then with my wife and children," Ghamdi, a 42-year-old civil servant working in downtown Riyadh, told AFP.

"I didn't mix or talk to anyone except those I knew or who resembled me.

"Now, things have changed. You feel that society, with all its classes, is in one place," he added while speeding along the blue line, which connects working-class areas in the south with the downtown business district and affluent northern neighbourhoods.

With its eye-watering oil riches, intricate tribal networks and large numbers of foreign workers, Saudi society has long been divided by rigid class structures.

But on the metro, those divisions are more porous.

Metro carriages are frequently crowded with labourers, university students, government employees and business executives wearing expensive suits.