THE CHAIRMAN of the Egyptian state's National Railways Authority Ashraf Raslan as well as a number of the authroity's top management were dismissed from their positions on Tuesday on the back of Sunday's train accident that took the lives of 11 people and left 98 injured. A statement by the Ministry of Transportation noted that the aim of the changes is to bring new expertise to continue the development plans currently being implemented to present a better service for passengers. The accident occurred when a passenger train, heading from Cairo to Mansoura, went off the tracks near the city of Toukh in Qalioubiya governorate. At least 60 ambulances were rushed to the scene of the accident to take the injured to nearby hospitals in Qalioubiya. Train movement stopped in the east Delta until civil salvation teams could remove the mangled train wagons and rescue survivors. At least 10 railway officials, including the driver and his assistant, were detained. It is not yet clear what caused the train to derail. A statement by the Railway Authority said prosecution investigations into the cause of the accident had started. The Health Ministry said most of the injured suffered broken bones, cuts, and bruises and that all had received the necessary medical treatment. Three people in critical condition were taken to Nasser Institute Hospital in Cairo for surgery. Videos posted on social media showed passengers lying prone along the railway line, next to the overturned train cars. At Banha University Hospital, people lined up to donate blood. Families were also looking for loved ones who had been on the train. This is the third serious train accident in Egypt in less than a month. At least 32 people were killed and 165 injured last month after two passenger trains collided in the Tahta district of Sohag, south of Egypt. Prosecutors said they found that gross negligence by railway employees was behind the deadly 25 March crash which caused a public outcry across the country. Last week, at least 15 people were injured when train carriages derailed in the Nile Delta governorate of Sharqiya. Lack of maintenance and dilapidated infrastructure together with poor management are viewed as the main reasons behind the increasing number of rail accidents in recent years. Transportation Minister Kamel Al-Wazir has vowed to keep working on developing the ageing rail network. The government said it has launched a broad renovation and modernisation initiative. President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi said in 2018 that the government needs LE250 billion to overhaul the rundown railway system. *A version of this article appears in print in the 22 April, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
