Will new plans to overhaul Egypt's dilapidated railways end horrific accidents? Gihan Shahine is not so sure Three days after the collision of two passenger trains that killed 58 people in the northern Cairo town of Al-Qalyoubiya, the worst such accident in four years, Minister of Transportation Mohamed Mansour announced that the government will earmark LE8.5 billion to upgrade railway services. The funds, Mansour said, will be spent on "developing railway crossings, stations and locomotives, as well as second- and third-class wagons and more training for personnel". The accident also prompted a few administrative and punitive measures. The head of Egypt's National Railway Authority was sacked immediately following the accident and his deputy suspended while the minister announced that serious probes in the accident are well under way. To be sure, similar measures have been announced every time following such accidents but close to nothing has actually been done in terms of prevention. A recent study by Ain Shams University professors found that railway accidents in Egypt are three times those of the US and Canada, an estimated 800-900 rail accidents per year. The deadliest was on 20 February 2002, when an Aswan-bound train was unintentionally set on fire, killing at least 373 and leaving 64 severely injured. That tragedy immediately prompted a spate of government announcements of new railway security measures and overhaul plans, as well as an immediate cabinet reshuffle, splitting the Transportation Ministry into a Civil Aviation Ministry and a Transport Ministry which could concentrate more fully on railway problems. A comprehensive strategy was also announced to upgrade railway services, especially third- class trains, which serve at least 80 per cent of all railway commuters who are estimated at half a billion passengers per year. The strategy included removing old train cars and the repair of dilapidated ones, alongside the furnishing of all public transport with security and alarm systems, including fire extinguishers and a telephone network. At the time, Al-Ahram Weekly 's on-site investigation of the status of third-class trains showed that the statements and measures were no more than attempts to temporarily defuse public anger. Third-class carriages remain broken down and lack basic emergency equipment -- no fire extinguishers, no emergency hand brakes, no communication between the pilot car and the rest of the carriages, and not even lights. Today, four years later, Minister Mansour conceded that half of the locomotives in service are in need of repair, with a quarter of the total being at least 30 years old. Mansour said he had requested LE8 billion in funding since his appointment in December to implement a five-year refurbishment plan of the rail system, but that his request had met no response until last week's tragedy. Housing expert Milad Hanna said the problem is that the railway authority is affiliated to the Ministry of Transportation. "As such, it does not have an independent budget and has a low-ranking official as its chief, with no qualification for the job, and who is hired by the minister." Decades earlier, Egypt's railway, the second oldest in the world, was described by Hanna as "the safest and most punctual mode of transport" and its chief was "a high-ranking official with an independent budget. "In Egypt, unlike Europe, railways mainly serve the poorer strata of society, and thus get the least priority in government policies which give more attention to other modes of transport that serve the higher strata of society like highways and airports." The only railway line getting attention from the government according to Hanna is that linking Cairo to Alexandria, the only route used by the higher strata of society. Hanna said pumping funds into the railway authority would thus be useless unless the authority "is taken away from the Ministry of Transport and efficient chiefs are appointed". A retired head of Cairo trains told the Weekly that 90 per cent of the authority's budget is spent on air-conditioned first-class trains, leaving only 10 per cent for the rest, which the majority of passengers use. He said railway workers were "extremely underpaid" and thus "disinclined to do a good job". The Ain Shams study, conducted in the aftermath of the 2002 train fire at the request of the Ministry of Transport, similarly found that paying more attention to railway workers was the only way to curb Egypt's high toll of rail fatalities. An analysis of the cause of accidents over a five-year span preceding the 2002 rail tragedy found that the railway authority was responsible for only 32 per cent of all accidents while 68 per cent were the result of errors by passengers and pedestrians. Of the 32 per cent, only two per cent were the result of technical problems in the railway system (maintenance, lack of alarm and security systems, dilapidated locomotives), while human error caused 30 per cent of all accidents, according to the study. "We found that workers, especially those in control of the rail crossings, where 50 per cent of all accidents occurred, felt they were treated unfairly and had no sense of belonging to the railway authority," said Hatem Abdel-Latif, a professor of transportation at Ain Shams University's faculty of engineering. Abdel-Latif, who was among those involved in the study, explained that workers "are extremely underpaid and the fact that the authority chief is highly paid makes them indifferent and frustrated. "One worker, for instance, was found leaving his position at the controls of the railway crossing two hours before the end of his shift in order to get on the latest train heading back to his village because he could not afford any other means of transport." Workers, according to Abdel-Latif, were also inefficient. "The only institute training rail personnel is theoretical and does not provide workers with almost any practical training." Abdel-Latif said the issue was thus not just pumping funds into the railway authority and refurbishing old rail cars. That would address only two per cent of all railway disasters. "Unless those funds are geared toward improving the salaries of workers and providing them with adequate training, accident tolls will remain as high as ever."
