Dive summary:

• Perhaps not since the transcontinental rail boom in the U.S. has there been a national call for a rail system, but Oman is making it now, with a window closing March 25 for firms to bid to do the preliminary-design engineering for a 1,061-kilometer system.
• The country hopes to begin construction in the third quarter of 2014 and be operating in 2018, including nine freight yards along the system.
• Oman's next step after hiring a preliminary-design firm is to take RFPs for a design-and-build engineering contract and then to hire a project management firm, the nation's Ministry of Transport and Communications said.

From the article:

“We are aiming for the completion of the design by the end of 2014 and the construction phase to start in the third quarter of 2014," says Salim Bin Said Al Amri, head of the ministry's rail team. "We hope to complete phase one by the end of 2018, in line with a target set by the Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] states.”