Alexandria Port received yesterday some of the 120 new locomotives object of a deal signed by the Ministry of Transportation. 80 of these vehicles are a gift from Qatar and Libya and are worth LE 2 billion. This comes while Egypt-Qatar relations are quite troubled because of the attack on Egypt launched by the Qatar-based TV channel Al-Jazeera, which blames Cairo for Israel's aggression on Hamas movement. The ship carrying the new locomotives moored at the port after setting sail 28 days ago from the US. The unloading took place throughout Thursday and ended yesterday morning. The new locomotives are a present from Qatar and Libya, as Qatar donated $123 million to buy 40 bulldozers in 2007, when its relations with Egypt were excellent. Transportation Minister Mohamed Mansour said he could not specify whether these first new locomotives had been donated by Libya or Qatar. Speaking to the press yesterday following the celebration at the port for the arrival of the locomotives, Mansour thanked Qatar and Libya for the present, which is worth $246 million. At the same time, Mansour said the rise in train tickets would affect only air-conditioned trains and not those for low-income people. He affirmed the ministry is looking for new ways to increase resources other than raising ticket prices, such as taking advantage of the Railway Authority's assets as well as the ministry's unused lands (some 90 million m2), adding there had been no increase in ticket prices in 2008. He affirmed the first portion of locomotive would start working at the beginning of February 2009 on the Upper Egypt line. He said the Railway Authority would increase the number of daily trips to Southern and Northern Egypt by 20% (they are currently 28 per day), adding this would take place gradually until all locomotives are received at the end of October 2009.
