The prosecution-general summoned 38 railway officials and detained eleven employees following last week's deadly train crash at Ramses Station. Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek issued a report on Monday on the results of the investigation into the tragic accident which killed 22 and left dozens injured, many in a critical condition. The report précised the findings of a number of investigative bodies, including the General Directorate of Criminal Evidence which found that the “locomotive's gearbox was set to the eighth transmission, the highest, during the crash, which enabled the locomotive to run at 120km an hour”. On Wednesday 27 February a deadly blaze broke out at Cairo's main terminus when a train engine with no driver entered the station at high speed and burst into flames. “The accident was caused by the collision of the engine with the concrete buffers at the end of the platform. The crash caused the engine's tank, which contained 6,000 litres of diesel, to leak,” said the report. Sparks caused by the friction of metal parts ignited the fuel. “Examinations reveal that the fire started and was concentrated in the area of the fuel tank… There were no traces of explosive devices at the scene,” said the prosecution-general. The Central Administration of Chemical Laboratories said the driver of the crashed locomotive had tested positive for the potent narcotic Strox. The tests of another five detainees, out of six initially detained last week, were negative. Egypt's prosecutor-general said last week that the preliminary investigation indicated the driver had left the engine while it was in gear and without pulling the breaks, to argue with the driver of another train that had rammed the locomotive outside the station. The unattended locomotive then sped off to the station, smashed into the buffers and burst into flames. On Saturday a Cairo criminal court renewed the detention of the six railway workers — the train driver, his assistant, a second train driver and three other rail employees. On Tuesday, the prosecution-general ordered the detention of another five railway employees, totalling 11, pending investigations. In the course of the investigation the prosecutor-general summoned 38 officials from the Egyptian National Railway (ENR), including its Chairman Ashraf Raslan. Transportation Minister Hisham Arafat resigned on the same day of the accident. Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker is temporarily in charge of the Transportation Ministry. On Saturday Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal revealed that Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli is scheduled to deliver a statement before parliament next week on the crash. “Madbouli's statement will not be confined to the accident, but will cover the performance of the ENR,” he said. The prime minister should tell parliament what measures are being taken to avoid such tragic accidents in the future, and what can be done to streamline the railway network, Abdel-Aal said during a visit to the Nasser Institute Hospital where some of the injured are receiving treatment. “Although the whole accident is still a matter of investigation by prosecution authorities, it is clear it was the result of negligence.” Thousands of citizens have been killed in rail accidents in the last two decades. Egypt's railway network, the second oldest in the world, witnessed 1,249 accidents in 2016, says the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS). A total of 13,539 train accidents occurred between 2004 and 2016. In 2017 alone, 1,793 accidents were reported across the railway network. Eighty per cent of the accidents in 2017 involved collisions at crossing points. “The network we are using nowadays is more or less the same one we were using in 1935,” Arafat said following an earlier accident during his tenure as minister. He estimated that upgrading the network would cost $1 million a kilometre. The railway network requires a massive overhaul, says Hani Sobhi, professor of railway engineering at Ain Shams University. Maintenance of equipment has been routinely ignored, for years, he adds. Egypt's railway network comprises 9,570km of tracks. It transports 500 million passengers annually — an average of 1.4 million passengers per day — according to the ENR's own figures. “The sector desperately needs upgrading. Modern electrical signals need to be installed and diesel engines replaced with electric ones,” says Osama Okail, professor of road and railway engineering at Ain Shams. Problems have been compounded by massive under-investment leaving the system “managed by ancient technology that has not been updated since it was first installed”. ENR Chairman Raslan says the authority operates 854 passenger trains and 50 freight trains daily. “Comparing the number of accidents with the number of trains operated daily, we find that the proportion of accidents is negligible,” insists Raslan. He stressed that the latest accident was caused by the driver's negligence. While acknowledging the traumatising effect of the incident, Raslan said it must not be taken out of context. According to the government's own studies, 69 per cent of accidents on the railways between 2007 and 2011 were caused by human error, 25 per cent by a combination of human error and technical malfunction and six per cent by technical failings. Cabinet Spokesperson Nader Saad said that LE56 billion has been allocated for the development of the railway sector between 2014 till 2020: 100 new engines have been bought for LE11 billion, and large sums spent on developing unofficial crossings. In March 2018 the House of Representatives approved amendments to the law governing the ENR, giving a green light to private sector companies to build, manage, operate and maintain the railway network. The amendments give ENR the right to establish joint-venture companies that can be listed on the stock market. Parliamentary Speaker Abdel-Aal described the move at that time as “a crucial step” in relieving the problems — “huge debts, outdated operating systems and dilapidated locomotives” crippling the ENR. He stressed, however, that the changes did not amount to privatisation of the railway network and were fully in line with Article 32 of the constitution which allows the private sector to operate public utilities for up to 15 years at a time.
