CAIRO: Egyptian National Railways (ENR) has enforced a 15 percent increase in ticket prices for air-conditioned first- and second-class train passengers to develop the railways amid public discontent over the raise and the deteriorating level of service. What will we do? We have to take the train. It is still the best means of transportation. However, they should improve the performance. We are supposed to take air-conditioned trains, but air conditioning sometimes does not work; bathrooms are not clean, and seats are not good, Mohamed Abd El Mone em, a passenger, told Daily News Egypt. The price increase is part of the Ministry [of Transport s] plan to develop the ENR. We need sources of income to do that. One of these sources is to increase only the tickets of air-conditioned trains so that we will be able to provide better service to our costumers, commented Mohamed Ashraf Soliman, head of Central Management for Planning and Executive Presidency Affairs, to Daily News Egypt. The ENR needs LE 10.5 billion to cover its development efforts. So far, it has received LE 5 billion from the state and LE 3.5 billion in loans and grants. To cover the remaining amount, ENR will invest its land for commercial purposes and raise ticket prices. However, the passenger's contribution by paying for the higher-priced tickets is a small amount of money, Soliman said. All prices have increased - food, drinks and now transportation. No one will go to resorts, Mahmoud Radwan, another passenger, told Daily News Egypt, adding that this increase is a burden on the Egyptian middle class family since resorts are becoming expensive. It is government policy. All prices have increased. There could be a development in the future. You have to be optimistic, a passenger, Essam Sayed Shehata, said. The ENR has two plans for development, a short-term plan of buying spare parts for existing trains and long-term plans of buying 120 diesel locomotives to be delivered by September 2008, Soliman said. There has been a shortage of spare parts. We are receiving spare parts [ordered from abroad] and the level of air conditioner malfunctioning has decreased, and the rest is yet to come. .Development does not happen in a day. It is all a matter of time, he said. A power technician, who refused to give his name, said that trains tend to be late and the air conditioning does not work because there are a lot of flaws in the diesel locomotives, either with the electricity, mechanics or the wheels. ENR has been working with 50 percent of its stock of diesel locomotives. It has 700 in total, but only 240 of them are working and they need to be repaired, according to Soliman. Soliman, however, refused to link these new development plans with last August's Qalyoub train accident, which killed 57 people and injured 128, according to official estimates. Qalyoub accident has nothing to do with it. We were only waiting for state financial support, and [after the accident] we received LE 5 billion. Upon obtaining the money, we started signing contracts to buy diesel locomotives and spare parts, Soliman told Daily News Egypt. However, the power technician said, These diesel locomotive faults were hidden until the Qalyoub accident. There could have been a fault and the train would go, but now drivers are afraid and do not go out with a train with a malfunction in it. Soliman explained that the increase in ticket price was based on studies conducted by the ENR in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport, considering both the ENR's needs as well as how much the costumers could bear. There was a 10 percent increase in prices in April 2002, and last year, only the price of first class tickets increased, he added. The plan is ongoing, but it just needs time. The passengers will feel the impact in the long run, Soliman said. We will see, said Ahmed Mahmoud, a passenger who was shocked with the increase and hoped for a better service in the future.
