Aline Kazandjian samples the first leg of a planned rail route which will one day run through the Levant and Anatolia and on to Europe Seasoned travellers will tell you that the essence of a journey is not its destination but the voyage itself. Our destination at the end of a recent trip was a desolate village in North Sinai called Bir Al-Abd. To get there we had to cross the Nile Delta, the Eastern Desert, the Suez Canal and the desert of Sinai -- and all on a "local" train.. The station at the village of Bir Al-Abd, "the Slave's Well", is the last on a railway line which was inaugurated last fall. It runs somewhere along the lines of the old track hurriedly built to transport troops to Gaza during World War I and dismantled by the Israelis in 1968. The "Peace Train", to give it its symbolic title, connects Ismailiya to Sinai via the Ferdan Bridge. At a later stage this line will be extended to Rafah, 225km from Ismailiya. Eventually the line will cross over to Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria and on to Turkey and Europe -- or so went the plan in more peaceful times. Such a line existed before 1948, but consecutive wars in the area have destroyed the railway and the current situation in the occupied territories has derailed development plans. Our journey began in Cairo. After we had chugged our way through the densely-populated suburb of Shubra Al-Kheima we were welcomed by a fresh breeze which stayed with us as we passed through the towns of the Nile Delta along the Cairo-Alexandria agricultural road. We watched the fellahin tending their crops, water buffaloes grazing lazily in the shade of date palms and overburdened donkeys trotting gamely along the narrow paths which separate the strips of land. At Benha the train turned east towards Zagazig. Once past this obstacle, the ever-unchanging scenes of the Egyptian countryside gave way to the bare sands of the Eastern Desert. Finally, we reached Ismailiya. The colonial houses built during the construction of the Suez Canal -- which was opened with great ceremony on 18 November 1869 -- and later during the British occupation of this zone give Ismailiya a distinctly European character. At the same time, newish hotels, parks and resorts provide comfortable accommodation for those who wish to take their time watching the ships pass through the canal, while meantime stretching out on the sandy beaches of the many lakes around Ismailiya. Unfortunately we had no time to linger. Our train pressed forward, crossing the Suez Canal over the Ferdan Bridge. This grey-blue steel construction, completed last November at a cost of LE380 million, is the largest retractable bridge in the world. It takes about 20 minutes for the bridge to open up in the middle. It forms two parallel lines along the coast, leaving a shipping clearance of 320m. This ritual testimony to technology takes place daily at 9.00am, allowing the train and cars to cross until 11.00am, and then again from 9.00pm to 1.00am. The passage of the train may be delayed by the action of the bridge -- as indeed it was on our journey -- but the activity is enthralling and more than makes up for the wait. Once on the eastern bank of the canal we travelled north towards Al-Qantara Shark (East Qantara). In the distance we could see another recent addition to the skyline: the Mubarak Al-Salam Bridge, a concrete suspension bridge hanging 70 metres above water level. The bridge provides an aerial view of a large section of the canal, and to watch a gigantic oil tanker breaking the waves under your feet is an awesome experience. It's a peaceful scene, yet the Sinai sands have seen their share of bloodshed. A few kilometers from the town of Al- Qantara Shark the skeletons of charred tanks still litter the desert. On this spot one of the fiercest tank battles in modern day history took place, in 1973. But other landmarks of the last war fought between Egypt and Israel, such as the Bar Lev Israeli fortification line, are gone forever to make way for the expansion of the Suez Canal. Since the return of Sinai to Egypt was completed in 1985, development plans have been advancing along a bumpy road depending on the political situation on the eastern frontier. LE110 billion has been allocated for a master plan spanning the years 1994 to 2017 to develop the Sinai Peninsula. The bridges, the Peace Canal which brings Nile water for land reclamation and the new East Port Said port and industrial zone, as well as other hopeful projects, are part of this mega plan. From Al-Qantara Shark to Bir Al-Abd, the North Sinai scenery takes over. The smooth desert sand and the underground springs nourish green oases of palms. Their shade invites Bedouin families to set up their makeshift palm-frond huts here. Nomad women in traditional black embroidered dresses tend their goats and sheep. The scene is one of serenity and peace. The most impressive building in Bir Al-Abd is the brand new train station. The line finishes here: we disembarked and took a bus to our hotel just outside the town of Al-Arish. The railway upon which our train was running cost LE320 million. Work on the second phase, which would have taken us all the way to Rafah, is currently on hold until the Middle East peace process is put back on the right track. photo: Axel Krause Practical information From Cairo to Ismailiya; daily; second class carriages only; air-conditioned; journey time two and a half hours; fare LE13. From Ismailiya to Bir Al-Abd (bookings should be made in Ismailiya): twice daily at the times of the bridge closure; journey time: about one and a half hours; fare LE2. From Bir Al-Abd to Al-Arish: bus or car. Ismailiya hotels: Hotel Mercure, Tel: (64) 338040 Palma Abu Sultan, Tel: (64) 660421 Morgan, Tel: (64) 661819 Al-Arish hotels Coral Beach Al-Arish (half an hour from Al-Arish by car. Tel: (68) 331000 EGOTH Oberoi Al-Arish Tel: (68) 332016 photo: Axel Krause
