Egypt's train stations have once again become hives of activity since last Tuesday, earlier having been deserted aside from security personnel after the government's decision to suspend all train traffic for fear of violence following the crackdown on the Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Al-Nahda Square sit-ins on 14 August. Nagwa Albert, the spokesperson of the Egyptian National Railways (ERN), put the losses from the 10-week stoppage at some LE4 million a day, including ticket sales in first-class air-conditioned trains. Lower-end trains like suburban ones had not contributed to the losses, she said, as the ERN did not count them as a source of income. The price of the tickets in such trains ranges from between LE3 and LE6. According to the ERN's website, the company has some 3,500 passenger transport coaches, including 850 air-conditioned coaches. During normal service, around 500 million passengers a year (1.4 million per day) use trains as a means of transportation in Egypt. The losses included the salaries of the ERN's 65,000 employees, who had continued to be paid despite the stoppage, Albert said. The ERN had also had to shoulder the LE12 million in losses incurred due to the vandalism of the Marsa Matrouh route and the Assiut train station during the clashes that erupted after 14 August. Added to this, was the LE21 million lost as a result of thefts of cables, wires and track, Albert said. However, Rashad Abdel-Ati, deputy chief of the ERN, said that the real losses had come from the stoppage of what he said was the ERN's “goldmine”, its cargo transportation sector. In 2004-05, this realised net profits of LE12 million. According to Abdel-Ati, strategic goods like coal, steel, seeds and cement are transported by train at competitive rates in Egypt, especially when compared with other means of transport. Some 1,500 tonnes of steel can easily be transported in one train, he said, something that could never be done by road. Abdel-Ati added that until 2010-11, the train network had used to transport 250,000 tonnes of steel per month from the Bahariya Oasis to the Iron and Steel Company near Cairo. However, after the 25 January Revolution, the figure had declined to 50,000 tonnes, leading to the closure of the steel factories. Abdel-Ati pointed out that the ERN's troubles had not started with the revolution, however. “The security situation was also bad, and it affected the ERN's assets negatively, during the last years of the Mubarak regime,” he said. This affected the quality of the services and the reputation of the ERN, he added, which was why in some ways the present stoppage could have come as a blessing in disguise, as it had provided the opportunity to carry out much-needed maintenance work on stations, trains and railroad crossings. Abdel-Ati also highlighted a new procedure aimed at tightening losses. People using the trains without buying tickets was a main drain on ERN resources, he said, and therefore each train would now be supplied with a team of inspectors to check all passengers' tickets. Regarding security, Mohamed Al-Sisi of the Railways Police Association told Al-Ahram Weekly that passengers and their luggage would now pass through electronic gates in addition to the presence of policemen in the trains.In an unprecedented move in the sector, the Egyptian government is considering selling shares to the public to help finance a high-speed passenger rail project extending up the Nile valley. The railway would run from Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast to Cairo and then to the tourist centre of Luxor in the far south, a distance of 800km. A further line would later run to tourist towns on the Red Sea in a project that would eventually cost a total 70 billion Egyptian pounds. The plan aims at commuting 4 million passenger annually. A plan to introduce a high speed train linking between Cairo and Alexandria has been under study since 2009 . The fastest train between Egypt's two biggest cities currently takes about two hours. According to the local financial daily Al-Mal , the army is considering contributing in financing the project together with state banks. The government this week raised the value of an economic stimulus package for the financial year to June 2014 to LE29.6 billion from the initial 22.3 billion pounds announced in August. Some of the new cash will be directed to building railways, roads, bridges as well as to an extension of the Cairo metro and other improvements to the city's transport network.
- EGYPT's railways are among the oldest in the world, with the Khedive Abbas I contracting the British locomotive builder Robert Stephenson to build Egypt's first standard gauge railway in 1851. - The first section, linking the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and Kafr Al-Zayat on the Rosetta branch of the Nile, was opened in 1854, making it the first railway in the then Ottoman Empire as well as in Africa and the Middle East. - In 1856, the section between Kafr Al-Zayat and Cairo was completed, and this was followed by an extension from Cairo to Suez in 1858. - In 1892, the Cairo main railway station was built, and many additional buildings were subsequently added to it, including the capital's Railways Museum.
