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Transportation: it’s everyone’s favorite
way of getting somewhere else.

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But what kind of transportation is best?

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Well, that’s a complicated and highly-contentious
question that humanity has been trying to

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answer for centuries, but the answer is trains.

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They’re fast, cheap, high-capacity, energy-efficient,
and any decently-sized city that cares about

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its residents has some sort of metro system—I’m
looking at you…

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most cities in America.

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But there’s one metro line that stands out
among the rest: the Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah

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Metro line in Saudi Arabia.

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Designed to transport 72,000 people in each
direction per hour, it has a higher capacity

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than any other individual metro line in the
entire world—that is, for the one week a

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year that it actually operates.

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Why only one week a year?

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Well, that’s because this train was designed
to solve one very unique logistical nightmare.

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To explain the problem, though, we need to
talk about the city that this subway line

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serves: Mecca.

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You see, Mecca is the number one holy city
in the religion of Islam, just like Jerusalem

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is the number one holy city in Judiasm, and
Green Bay is the number one holy city in alcholism.

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Every year, on the last month of the Islamic
calendar, Muslims from around the world come

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to Mecca for a religious pilgrimage called
the Hajj—over five or six days, they travel

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between different sites in the region to perform
various religious activities like cutting

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their hair, stoning this pillar, and a whole
bunch of other stuff that I don’t really

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have time to get into, but I hear there’s
a great book on it by some guy named Muhammad.

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Now, at first, this influx of visitors doesn’t
really sound like it would be a huge problem—after

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all, Orlando survives a sacred pilgrimage
of Disney Adults every single day—but here,

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it all comes down to scale: every practicing
Muslim is obliged to participate in the Hajj

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at least once in their life, and that’s
nearly a quarter of the global population.

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If you have more than 4 people in your family,
then at least one of them has to go—I’m

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sorry, but that’s just how statistics work.

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As a result, the city has to accommodate millions
of visitors over the course of just a few

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days, every single year.

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Now, Mecca itself is fairly big, and it can
support a sizable population of about 2 million

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people year-round.

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But during the Hajj, their population generally
doubles or even nearly triples—basically,

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imagine Philadelphia, if, for one week out
of the year, Chicago came to visit.

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On one hand, they’d probably invent some
horrible new kind of pizza, but on the other

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hand, people would almost certainly die.

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And sure enough, when the pilgrims enter Mecca,
things can get pretty cozy, and by “cozy,”

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I mean “incredibly dangerous.”

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Setting aside the complications with housing,
feeding, and providing medical services for

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these millions of visitors, trying to transport
them between the various holy sites safely

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and efficiently is no easy task.

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Traditionally, the Hajj has been done on foot,
but traveling in such dense groups has proven

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to be risky—stampedes are unfortunately
fairly common, and usually result in hundreds,

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if not thousands, of deaths.

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For a long time, the only other option was
taking a bus, but with tens of thousands of

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buses jamming up the roads—usually stuck
in the sweltering heat for hours—it’s

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not exactly the most tempting alternative
to getting crushed to death.

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So, in March of 2010, Saudi Arabia began construction
on the Mecca Mass Rail Transit system.

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This doesn’t have an exact translation into
English, but it’s essentially a mass rail

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transit system in Mecca.

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Originally, it was supposed to feature 4 year-round
metro lines that spanned the whole city plus

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one separate line dedicated exclusively to
the Hajj, but after the Saudis finished the

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Al Mashaaer line later that year, they kind
of just… forgot to build the rest.

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The Al Mashaaer line—also called the Hajj
Metro—is still the only line in operation,

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and it runs for just 7 days a year, during
the Hajj.

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Now, I know I’ve made you nerds suffer through
bad jokes and learning about other cultures,

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so I’ll finally get to everyone’s favorite
part: the section where I explain some technical

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details!

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The Hajj Metro consists of a four-line parallel
loop that runs 11.2 miles or 18.2 kilometers

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between 9 different stations in the holy sites
of Mecca, Arafat, Muzdalifah, and Mina.

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It runs 24 12-car trains per hour in each
direction, each of which can carry 3,000 pilgrims;

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to put those numbers into perspective, this
single metro line was able to replace about

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50,000 buses, and to put that number into
perspective, that’s as many buses as it

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would take to replace the highest-capacity
metro line in the world.

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A ticket costs 250 riyal—or about 66 dollars—except
for the last day of the Hajj, when the price

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drops to 100 riyal.

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But before you godless train geeks head to
Saudi Arabia to check out the cool new train

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you learned about on YouTube, you probably
should know that it’s illegal for non-Muslims

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to enter Mecca at all—if you want a chance
to be transported more efficiently than anywhere

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else on earth, you’re going to have to convert.

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If that sounds like a lot of crowds and lines
and you’d rather just stay home, then good

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news: you don’t need to waste money on expensive,
unhealthy takeout or waste time on grocery

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shopping to eat well.

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You can use HelloFresh.

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With them, you select the meals you want,
then all the ingredients arrive at your door

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pre-portioned and ready to cook so you can
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faster.

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For example, I made these tropical teriyaki
pork bowls in 20-something minutes start-to-finish,

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and I didn’t have to worry about grocery
shopping, finding a recipe, or dealing with

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all the waste of having to buy more ingredients
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