CAIRO (Zawya Dow Jones)--Saudi Arabia has deferred to the second quarter of this year plans to start trial operations at a railway designed to transport phosphate and bauxite ore, state-run Saudi Press Agency, or SPA, reports Wednesday, citing a senior rail official.

Saudi Railway Co., or SAR, has so far executed 1,213 kilometers of the 1,486 kilometers railway, said Mansour Bin Saleh Al Maiman, the firm's chairman, according to SPA.

Al Maiman gave no reason for the delay, from the end of 2010.

SAR has previously said the line, which will serve projects developed by Saudi Arabian Mining Co. (1211.SA) with Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (2010.SA) and U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. (AA), is expected to be in operation by the end of 2010.

The planned railway will link the phosphate mine at Al Jalamid and the bauxite mine at Az Zabirah to the processing facilities at Ras Azzour, on the Gulf coast.

Maaden is doubling capacity at its Saudi fertilizer plant to 6 million metric tons a year. It will use phosphate from a deposit at Al Jalamid and local gas and sulfur supplies to manufacture the fertilizer diammonium phosphate, or DAP.

Maaden is also developing a fully integrated complex refinery with Alcoa, which will be the world's lowest-cost supplier of primary aluminum, alumina and aluminum products.

-By Summer Said, Dow Jones Newswires; +966-546-842-373; summer.said@dowjones.com