Egypt is set to renovate the first and oldest line of Cairo's metro system with a fund of 205 million euros, the cabinet said on Wednesday after a deal was signed between the government and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The cabinet said that the signing in Cairo was attended by PM Mostafa Madbouly, Transportation Minister Hisham Arafat and Investment and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr. According to Arafat, the fund will be used to change the rail tracks used in the first line, as well as renovate stations and trains. The transportation minister revealed that around 900,000 passengers use the metro line in the summer, and 1,200,000 use it in the winter. Egypt has repeatedly hiked metro ticket prices after the partial lifting of fuel subsidies. The ticket price hike is to keep the service operating and finance extensions for the metro. The last price increase was last May, when tickets prices were raised based on a new zoning system, ranging from EGP 3 to EGP 7 per ticket, up from a flat rate of EGP 2. First launched in 1987, Cairo's metro, which operates throughout the capital and surrounding areas and runs both above and below ground at a top speed of 80 kilometres an hour, is one of the country's fastest means of transportation. The metro accommodates more than four million passengers per day. Egypt plans to construct two additional metro lines in order to connect Cairo, Giza and the country's new administrative capital by 2030, bringing the total number of lines to six.
