Construction on The Line, a planned car-free smart city in Saudi Arabia, has been halted until 2030 following multiple delays and downsizing. The project was launched in 2021 as a centerpiece of Vision 2030, a $500 billion modernization program intended to reduce reliance on oil. The plan called for housing nine million residents in two parallel mirrored skyscrapers 105 miles long, 1,640 feet high, and 656 feet wide, managed by Neom. Critics cited conflicts with physics and economics for a massive linear city across a desert. Funding is being redirected toward practical infrastructure as Saudi spending faces a growing deficit and weaker economic conditions tied to regional fallout.
"Saudi Arabia has halted construction on The Line, the over-hyped megacity that was supposed to slice through the sand like a mirrored sword, until 2030-LOL!-after multiple delays and downsizings. Anyone with two functioning eyes and three ounces of brain tissue could have predicted this spectacular crash. The concept blatantly defied basic physics and economics. It was a sci-fi fever dream doomed the second it left the rendering farm."
"The Line began as a supernova of corporate promotion. In 2021, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman officially launched the enterprise as the utopian cornerstone of Vision 2030, a $500 billion national program meant to modernize the country and wean it off oil. He intended the project to be a car-free smart city capable of housing nine million residents within two parallel mirrored groundscrapers measuring 105 miles long, 1,640 feet high, and 656 feet wide. The Line, like the rest of the architectural and engineering development projects in the Tabuk Province, in Saudi Arabia, is managed by Neom, a state-owned company that claims it "is building the foundations for a new future.""
"Urban planning skeptics immediately pointed out that building a massive linear city was a patently absurd proposition, citing historical precedent, the laws of physics, and economics that simply do not support a massive, sideways skyscraper - much less one stretching across a barren desert. Yet, the kingdom pushed forward, digging giant holes in the middle of nowhere until the sheer magnitude of the idiocy became impossible to ignore."
"The utopian glass house finally shattered under the weight of financial reality. Saudi spending, which grew astronomically under MBS, is actively being redirected toward immediate, practical infrastructure to weather a growing national deficit exacerbated by a weaker economy and the economic fallout of the Iran war. Vanity projects aren't making the cut. According to a strategic review led by N"
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