Minister of Transportation Hisham Arafat announced that the ministry will be installing VIP compartments for trains, stating that in 2015 we began manufacturing 212 air-conditioned VIP compartments, and that they aim to have all of the cars labeled as VIP during the next period.
During his speech in the Transportation Committee parliament meeting on Tuesday, Arafat explained that this was one of several steps taken during the past four years to improve the transportation system, which also include create around 12 $17-billion railways that cover 1100 km.
He added that one of the most notable newly created railways was the “Shubra-Banha” railway, which serves over 5 million people daily.
“We have renewed 297 km of railways from Cairo to Aswan with a cost of LE 700 million, and we have also improved 92 stations with a LE 500 million cost, in addition to importing 140 compartments that cost LE 1 billion 100 million.”
However, despite huge improvements, Arafat declared that what has been done during the past three years “was nothing compared to what will be achieved in the next four.”
The Egyptian Railway Authority is the second oldest in the world after the British Railway Authority Egyptian railways have suffered for a long time from negligence and system defects, making them the host of several accidents.
However, in 2012 the Manfalout train accident caused the Egyptian government to reconsider the way the railways were managed, announcing a plan to totally redo railroad crossing gates in Egypt. The first new gate was opened in 2013. The new gates are automatically controlled and the gates are solid instead of metal chains.
Egypt currently has some VIP cars. The first VIP train was operated in 2015 and covers the Cairo-Alexandria route. The train was the first of 212 to be manufactured completely in Egypt.
