CAIRO: Travelers can now book and purchase train tickets online. The Ministry of Transport, in collaboration with the Ministry of State for Administrative Development, launched the new service on Saturday. The service will be maintained by the IT departments at the Egyptian National Railways Authority and the National Commercial Bank, and is intended to reduce crowding at ticket booths at train stations. Passengers traveling between Cairo and Alexandria in first or second class must book their tickets at least 72 hours in advance through the authority's website: www.egyptrail.gov.eg. Using the service requires a user account, which can be created on the website, and a Visa or MasterCard. The credit card owner can either be the main passenger or a relative of the main passenger and the card used must be issued from Egypt. However, the service does not offer the discount privileges that are available at ticket booths. Each user is allowed to purchase five tickets per train and a total of 10 tickets per day in no more than three transactions per card on the same day. A fee of four percent per ticket is added to the original price. After the seat is reserved, the page redirects users to the website of the National Commercial Bank to fill out credit card information and personal information, namely an e-mail address and telephone number where passengers can be reached. For safety purposes, users are given 15 minutes to enter all the information correctly, after which the whole process is cancelled. Information about the reservation number, and train, compartment and seat numbers are then displayed on the screen as well as sent to the e-mail address provided. Reservations can be cancelled up to 48 hours prior to departure time. Canceling a reservation will mean canceling of all tickets under the same reservation number. Upon cancellation, users receive a 90 percent refund. On the travel day, passengers can board the train and are required to have the credit card used to make the purchase and the reservation information, printed or written. If the main passenger is not the owner of the card used to make the purchase, a copy of the card is required, as well as the passenger's passport or national ID card and the reservation information. The service is currently restricted to the Cairo-Alexandria line with plans to extend it to the Upper Egypt line, according to Magdy Hassanein, administrator of the service at the Egyptian National Railways Authority. Other popular e-government services include university admissions, the Tax Authority service and vehicle licensing.
