In the wake of last week's fatal train collision the usual promises have been made, reports Reem Leila Two days after the collision of two passenger trains between the villages of Kafr Ammar and Gerzah of Ayyat, 80km southwest of Cairo in the 6 October governorate, that left 18 dead and 36 injured, the Ministry of Finance has announced plans to increase the budgetary allocation of the National Railway Authority (NRA). NRA's current budget is LE500 million. The extra money, the amount of which has yet to be specified, will be available the next fiscal year, according to press reports, to be used to develop railway crossings, stations and locomotives, second- and third-class wagons and more training for personnel. Mahmoud Sami, the head of the NRA, was sacked immediately following the resignation of Minister of Transport Mohamed Mansour, and replaced by Mustafa Qenawi, vice- president for infrastructure at the NRA. The changes took place after it was announced that Minister of Electricity and Power Hassan Younes would take over the Transport Ministry until a new minister is sworn in. Thirty-four rail employees have been referred to the prosecutor-general for investigation, including the two train drivers, on charges of gross negligence which led to the death of 18 people. An estimated 80 per cent of Egypt's 600 million rail passengers a year use third class trains yet Sami has said 85 per cent of the NRA's budget is spent on its first class service, and to replace Egypt's 1,261 road/rail junctions with bridges and flyovers would cost at least LE36 billion. Plans have long been on the drawing board to upgrade 705 of the busiest junctions in two phases. "They were supposed to end by mid-2010, but fate moved faster than us," said Sami. He also complained that many railway workers and drivers are illiterate and "could not cope with driving modern trains". "They are underpaid. Raising salaries so as to attract qualified personnel is key to ending the problem." Ayyat MP Ahmed El-Sawi argues that the NRA is in dire need of a massive overhaul. "This accident shows there are major faults in the system. The government has failed to secure one of the most important services in the country and it is poor Egyptian citizens, as usual, who pay the price." "Safety measures on Egypt's railways not only betray systematic negligence when it comes to maintenance and equipment, but executive negligence at the highest levels," says Hani Sobhi, professor of railway engineering at Ain Shams University. The former transport minister, says Sobhi, "inherited a mesh of corruption and incompetence that will take decades to repair". He believes nothing will change if the government simply removes one minister to appoint another. "Train drivers, their assistants and other workers must receive high quality training courses on how to manage computerised locomotives. This is in addition to overhauling the communication." Three years ago the then minister, Mansour, conceded that at least half of the locomotives in service were in desperate need of repair and that a quarter of them were more than 30 years old. Mansour requested LE8 billion in funding to implement a five-year refurbishment plan of the rail system, with half of the amount earmarked for new locomotives and spare parts. In the past, says Sobhi, railways were considered "the safest and most punctual means of transport". At their head was "a well qualified and efficient official with an independent budget". Part of the problem, he says, is that the railways are now affiliated to the Ministry of Transport. "The NRA, as a consequence, lacks an independent budget and has a low- ranking official as its head." In Egypt, unlike many developed countries, railways mainly serve the poor. They receive little attention from a government focussed on other means of transport, such as highways and airports, that serve the better off. The only railway line receiving any attention from the government, says Sobhi, is the Cairo-Alexandria line, and then only because it is used by a higher strata of society. Sobhi believes that pumping funds into the railway authority will be pointless until the authority "is taken away from the Ministry of Transport and qualified employees are appointed". Hamdi El-Tahan, head of the People's Assembly Transport Committee, says citizens have yet to feel any improvement in either road or rail services, "despite the fact that in 2006 the government allocated LE5 billion to improving railway and road facilities". El-Tahan recalled government promises in 2004, 2006 and 2008 to upgrade more than 300 road junctions within four years. "In the aftermath of every major car or train accident the government makes promises and nothing gets done. These problems are the result of a history of neglect and will take a long time to be solved." By Reem Leila
