Back on track?

Are new safety measures and a cabinet reshuffle really going to help Egypt's ruined railways? Gihan Shahine takes a third-class train to look for answers
It is 2pm on Monday at Cairo's Ramses railway station and everything seems "normal," except that there are more security officers than usual patrolling the platforms. But an unmistakably tense atmosphere hangs over the place, probably the result of Saturday's government announcement of new railway security measures -- just the latest in a recent spate of official statements since the 20 February railway tragedy that left at least 373 dead and 64 severely injured.
We boarded a third-class train bound for Menoufiya, a route which is notorious for being "the worst and most crowded of all third class trains."
The shabby façade of the carriage bespoke the dilapidated state of their interiors. Most windows and seats were broken, with the entire inside of the carriage covered in heavy rust. A stinking smell wafted from the filthy run-down bathrooms. The carriages remain unfurnished and lack any basic emergency kit: no fire extinguisher, no emergency hand brakes, no connection to the driver's locomotive, and not even lights.
Before the train left the station, everybody seemed to be sticking to the new rules. "It's so unlike it was before," were the words of one passenger. The ticket collector made sure all passengers had tickets; the railroad officer made sure no one was seated on the rack, or smoking, or hanging out of the windows or the doors. Soft-drink vendors rushed around selling their wares before the train moved and, in accordance with new regulations, they were ordered to disembark.
It was peak time, however, and passengers soon started to jam up the carriages. Soon, each carriage was like a tin of sardines. Jostling passengers started pushing their way among the crowds, losing their tempers in the process and trading insults with each other.
Then it was 2.30pm -- time for the train to depart. Passengers started practising their acrobatic skills, jumping over the racks for a seat. Hardly able to keep my balance over a broken seat, I was suddenly surrounded with several feet dangling over my head. Cigarette smoke filled the already-suffocating car and the train congestion pushed many passengers to hang their bodies out of windows and car exits. The inspectors, who were just trying to do an honest day's work, reacted indifferently to the violations -- now that they were away from their superiors at Ramses station.
Far from the travelling masses, Monday's cabinet reshuffle was widely seen as one of the new steps to counter the recent surge in railway tragedies. The transportation ministry portfolio was split into a civil aviation ministry and a transport ministry. Hamdi Abdel-Salam El-Shayeb was appointed minister of transportation and Ahmed Shafiq Zaki is the minister of civil aviation.
The reshuffle is only a part of a wider strategy to curb the recent spate in train accidents and to upgrade railway services, especially third-class trains which serve at least 80 per cent of all railway commuters. The plan, prompted by the latest railway tragedy, included getting rid of expired train cars and the repair of dilapidated ones, alongside the furnishing all public transport with security and alarm systems.
According to the plan, all railway carriages will be equipped with fire- extinguishers and be connected through a telephone network. Once on board, smoking will be utterly prohibited and a LE10 penalty imposed on violators. Free permits will not be allowed on trains, thus all passengers will have to pay cash for tickets.
To help implement the regulations, the cabinet has granted the heads of railway stations and train conductors the legal authority to impose penalties on negligent and offending railway workers. Railway police will also be patrolling platforms, inspecting carriages during journeys, and imposing penalties on offending passengers. The railway authority will examine the railway control and emergency systems and the government is seriously considering a life- insurance scheme for railway passengers.
At the managerial level, all officials will be subject to a performance assessment and an evaluation report will be regularly submitted to the cabinet. Labour Law No 47 of 1987 will also be amended in a way that guarantees better assessment of workers' performance, and the imposition of harsher penalties on offenders.
The cabinet plan was probably speeded up by the occurrence of yet another train accident a day earlier on 8 March.
It was 9.45am on 8 March when, with the earlier disaster surely being re- played in their minds, people saw the locomotive of the Cairo-bound train 672 slipping off the tracks and jumping into a waterway, pulling the first carriage and the front part of the second out of tracks. The following two carriages lost balance as a result and turned over. Thirteen people were injured.
Investigations blamed the accident on "unscrupulous speeding" by the driver, who pleaded, for his part, that the train was not equipped with a speed control and alarm system which would have otherwise helped him "avoid the accident altogether." The driver also told prosecutors that although he had reported the problem to his superiors, they had given him the green light to start his journey.
Whatever the cause, the accident provoked further public anger and disbelief of previous official promises of "upgrading the railway services." A few days before the latest accident, Ali El- Saidi, minister of electricity and then acting minister of transportation, went public about a series of "stringent safety measures" and "tightened control over luggage inspection." Witnesses, however, claimed that those "measures" never saw the light of day, and the local press had a field day reporting on "loose security control."
Al-Wafd newspaper ran a story in which a woman reporter successfully boarded a third-class train disguised as a tea-caterer, carrying "strictly prohibited" flammable items in her luggage: a small stove, a litre of gas and a box of matches. The story, along with appropriately damning pictures, was published on Saturday.
Still, some experts are optimistic that the new regulations will mark "a serious about-turn" in government policy. Others, however, are more sceptical, claiming that official statements are no more than "an attempt to lull public wrath."
Passengers insist that the new regulations are nothing but talk. "All regulations are broken once we are out of the station," complained one passenger. Others agreed, affirming that the new plans have, thus far, meant nothing but tighter ticket and luggage inspection at the railway station. "Official promises have not made our lives any easier," another passenger complained. "The carriages are still void of any security measure, no fire-extinguishers have been provided, and rules are broken because offenders always go unpunished."
Commuters talking to Al-Ahram Weekly said there was no hope of any upgrade in third-class services. Part of it, they said, should be blamed on the "irresponsible behaviour" of the passengers themselves, "who will probably destroy mended carriages and snatch fire-extinguishers and lights, if the government ever provides any."
"Officials know passengers are wild and will not waste funds on bringing them new carriages or even improving current ones," one passenger said. As for safety precautions, many agreed that "tragedies will soon be forgotten and everything will go back to normal."
These passengers may have a point. The same sequence of events has repeated itself at least six times in the past: a horrific accident occurs and the government hastily sacks the chairman of the railway authority and goes public about new plans to upgrade railway services. Those plans, however, mostly end up in ministry drawers and filing cabinets, as the tragedy gradually gets shrouded in oblivion.
In a previous exclusive interview, former minister Ibrahim El-Dumeiri spoke to the Weekly of the ministry's ambitious plans to encourage private investment in the railway sector, so as "to bring in funds for the ministry to spend on upgrading railway stations and services, especially for third-class commuters."
Why haven't these plans been implemented? Dumeiri declined to speak to the press about it. But according to Issa Sarhan, who was once Dumeiri's adviser and is now head of the public works department at Ain Shams University's Faculty of Engineering, "it was all a matter of time."
Sarhan insists the ministry does have a comprehensive plan for upgrading all railway services and has already started with the renovation of 40 run-down third-class train carriages. Twenty have already been restored.
"The ministry was working in too many different areas, building roads, the underground metro and airports," Sarhan explained. Which is why he welcomes the new split of the transport ministry portfolio. "Aviation and transport can be managed separately. And that will probably relieve the heavy responsibility encumbering former transportation ministries," he said.
Funds, however, have always been a major obstacle. The railway authority was already operating at a loss.
"Financial constraints, however, can be easily tackled," Sarhan said. "We already have railway factories that can mend and produce new carriages at low cost. Also, workers should be trained on maintenance and inspection and foreign investors should be encouraged to build a new railway line."
Urban planner Milad Hanna, however, insists the problem is not with ministry plans, but rather with government policies. "The government gives priority to projects that serve the minority of people in the higher social strata and give the country a superficial face- lift," Hanna explained. "The majority of low-income families are thus left to suffer insufficient public utilities, informal housing, poor education and all sorts of inadequate services."
Mahmoud Allam, a retired head of Cairo trains, agrees. The government, he said, spent 90 per cent of its budget on air-conditioned first class trains, leaving only 10 per cent for the rest, which actually served the majority of passengers. Railway workers, for their part, were "extremely underpaid" and thus "disinclined to do a good job."
"The recent government plans to upgrade railway services for third class commuters will not make any headway unless train carriages are increased in number," Allam said. He blamed train congestion with passengers for almost every woe befalling third-class services: accidents, the disorderly conduct of passengers, the deterioration of carriages, and the shortage in inspection and safety measures. "It's enough to know that the carriages carry no less than 500 commuters in peak hours when their original capacity should not exceed a maximum of 100 passengers," he said.
That, however, may be changing soon. The government has promised to pump LE251 million in emergency funds to upgrade railway services.
Third-class passengers, for their part, are not listening to the promises. "Third-class services will never get any better, never, ever, ever," cried one commuter in despair.
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