New public transport options like City Cab leave Dina Ezzat more dedicated to Cairo's good old black-and-white taxis than ever It was anticipated early enough in the day of the Ahmed Nazif cabinet. On taking over in July 2004, Egypt's new technocrats promised correspondingly new transport options, with a prompt, affordable and safe taxi service reportedly catering to a huge civil service denomination permanently suffering in maze of smog and noise. The new vehicles would boast air- conditioning; phone them and they will be there; pay with your credit card if you want, and always ask for a receipt. But two months into the fulfilment of the promise -- 150 New York-yellow specimens glistening through the thoroughfares with the words "City Cab" flashing on their sides -- the new service is still generating confusion, with groomed chauffeurs fielding bemused, resentful or just plain envious looks from a vast majority still afflicted with the ubiquitous and notorious public red bus. Nor is this the only failure, as it turns out. Midnight on Tahrir Square: an exhausted commuter in a hurry realises that, aside from the inconvenience of a flat tire, there is no spare tire on the vehicle that is transporting him. As per the reassurances of the chauffeur, another yellow Hyundai arrives soon enough to save the day. No longer do you need to shout out your destination before getting on, of course -- if you do, and if you use taxis regularly in Cairo you will do, the driver is likely to offer a truly charming "At your service" in response -- but, newly employed as they are, City Cab drivers have been known to ask directions of their passengers even in as old and established a neighbourhood as Heliopolis; in some cases, indeed, Ain Shams University campus, or even worse, the downtown Sherif Street, have proved beyond the geographical means of City Cab. Well, you may be enough of a taxi person to be used to giving directions to black-and-white taxi drivers, many of whom are in the business only by way of supplementing their income; many, indeed, are civil servants. It does not make the truth about City Cab any less shocking. According to Ali, whose black-and-white evenings have recently been supplemented with yellow mornings, the City Cab job application was rather too smooth: "We were given no training. They just asked us a few questions to make sure we had basic English." Yet as far as Ali is concerned, "directions are not usually needed", for the vast majority of City Cab patrons, predominantly non-Egyptian, tend to be headed for key destinations: the airport, the railway station, a restaurant overlooking the Nile, or else an embassy, particularly the US and UAE embassies: "Most ordinary Egyptians won't want to switch to the yellow cabs as their rates are up to 25 per cent higher than the regular taxis; nor, to practical ends, are they as easily available. For the cost of a daily journey to go up from LE10-15 to LE20-25 (depending, partly, on the time of day) is after all no negligible impediment. Air conditioning may be a relief, particularly during rush hour in the summer, but with the fare soaring up to LE30 with stalling traffic, and many chauffeurs not as keen as they might be on personal hygiene, it does not seem worth the cost. Yet, according to most will-never-drive- in-Cairo commuters, City Cab is not for day-to-day, home-to- work journeys. Hanan, a civil employee in her mid-20s, explains, "it is more of a special even treat -- to avoid dust, sweat and harassment." Yet even then there are concerns to address. Many call centres are as yet under construction, while alternative numbers -- provided by drivers -- are seldom reliable. Even when someone picks up at the other end, the tone is all but hostile, and the client is more often than not told they would have to wait for an hour -- at least. By now disillusioned commuters are willing to pay a little extra for a regular black-and-white ride, a favour for which most drivers are willing to turn down the music, give up smoking or even refrain from picking up extra customers on the way, though the shared cab -- of which Egyptians were the impromptu pioneer -- is an increasingly acceptable concept in, among other places, London. Embarrassingly for a government that has done nothing to address the fact that regular cabs continue to operate without metres at a much outdated initial fare of 60 piastres, as compared to the City Cab's LE3.50, clearly it is in favour of the old black-and-white cab, not the all-new yellow monster, that the balance is tipping. Nor is it simply a question of economisation and availability. Human interaction will also have a part to play. A regular taxi user in Cairo will be habituated to chatting about the broadest range of topics -- from political parties to satellite TV, from the state of the Metro to the spread of the veil. City Cab drivers, by contrast, will only talk about one thing: their own quality service, "the crucial element of security for girls late at night" and round-the-clock availability. All of which is not to mention that taxis remain the only viable means of regular transportation in the city, even when affording them requires forgoing lunch or a hairdresser. The horrors of the red bus (and its attendant mini and microbuses, whether or not state-operated) cannot possibly be exaggerated: erratic hours, failure to arrive at the appointed stop and the tendency to stop elsewhere instead, inhumane overcrowding... For its part the underground Metro covers only a fraction of the city and, though prompt, it is often equally overcrowded: a commuter travelling from Ramses Road Nasr City might find it more opportune to pay LE12 for a direct journey than undertake two journeys for a total of LE8.75 (75 piastres for the Metro fare, LE8 for a taxi from Saraya Al-Quba station to Nasr City). Gihan, a Mohandessin resident, summed up the dilemma: "We can either start taking driving lessons and expect to spend our monthly taxi budget on an instalment for a car, worrying about the accidents and fights in the offing, we can continue to take regular taxis. The City Cab might be okay if you can be sharing the fare. Otherwise, I'm afraid, it's still the regular black-and-white cab -- as of now until further notice."
