For about 9 kilometers, the train continued its course despite the fire in its cars.

The driver did not hear the passengers ’screams, the calls were mixed with the sounds of tire friction with the bars, and upon realizing the end, those whose body allowed him to jump jumped out of the windows, and the one who was let down by the body was burned, leaving nothing but ashes.

At 2 a.m. on February 20, 2002, 70 kilometers south of Cairo, train wagons broke out on their way to Upper Egypt, carrying hundreds of Egyptians returning to their southern cities and villages for the Eid Al-Adha holiday.

Due to the tragic circumstances of its circumstances and the enormity of the number of its victims, this accident was considered the worst in the history of the Egyptian railways, as the number of victims reached 350 dead and 90 injured, according to official data, while human rights reports talk about larger numbers.

After the accident and for nearly 20 years, the casualties did not stop on what Egyptians call the "railways of death", for reasons that all revolve around the Egyptian transportation system, which prompted the government recently to take measures that it says represent a final solution to the death of Egyptians because of trains.

A train accident that occurred in Egypt in August 2017 (European News Agency)

Death rails

The railways in Egypt have a long history, as work began on its construction in 1834, but the first locomotive in the country was run in 1854, thus Cairo became the first in Africa and the Middle East to have railways, and the second in the world after London.

Currently, the Ministry of Transport owns 9,570 kilometers of railways, and the number of stations there are 705.

Over the past 25 years, Egyptians have suffered from train accidents, which caused hundreds of victims, and the largest share of them occurred during the era of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

In 1995, within the capital, Cairo, 75 passengers were killed and hundreds were injured due to a train collision with the rear of another train. Two years later, a similar accident occurred in Alexandria, killing 50 passengers, as well as injuring more than 80 others.

In 2006, two trains collided on the "Mansoura-Cairo" railway, and the accident left 80 dead and about 200 injured. In the following year, two trains collided in northern Cairo again, killing about 60 Egyptians.

In 2009, two trains collided on the "Cairo-Assiut" railway, killing 30 people and wounding others.

In 2012, a school bus collided with a passenger train in Assiut governorate, and that resulted in the death of 44 pupils in the kindergarten and elementary stages, and in the following year a train accident occurred carrying recruits from the Central Security Forces, which resulted in the death of 17 recruits and the injury of more than a hundred.

In 2017, two passenger trains collided in the city of Alexandria, killing 41 passengers and injuring more than 120.

The month of February 2019 witnessed a horrific accident, as a huge fire broke out at the main train station in Cairo, after a train collided with a concrete barrier, killing 22 people and wounding dozens with burns.

The proceeds are in the thousands

According to an official statistic prepared by the Railways Authority in cooperation with the Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics, the number of train accidents in Egypt was estimated at 12,236 accidents between 2006 and 2016, and the most number of accidents occurred in 2009, while 2012 witnessed the lowest number of them.

In mid-2020, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics issued a detailed report on train accidents in 2019, in which it mentioned that there were about 1863 accidents, compared to 2,044 accidents in 2018, a decrease of 8.9%.

Governmental efforts

According to a report issued by the World Bank in December 2018, Egypt considers that it needs to spend about $ 10 billion on railroad repairs between 2019 and 2029.

A month before the issuance of this report, the Egyptian government had already started moves in the way of developing the railways, as Cairo signed an agreement that was considered the largest in the history of the Railways Authority, with a Russian-Hungarian company to supply 1,300 railway cars at about one billion and 16 million euros.

The terms of the agreement included building a workshop in Egypt for maintenance work for imported vehicles, and training Egyptian workers in maintenance work.

Over two years, Egypt received 227 new vehicles out of the number of vehicles contracted for, and the rest of the vehicles are scheduled to arrive in succession according to an agreed schedule, whereby 35 passenger vehicles are supplied per month.

The Ministry of Transportation also contracted with the American General Electric Company (General Electric) to manufacture and supply 110 new tractors for the railways, in addition to rehabilitating 81 out of service tractors, and providing the necessary spare parts for them, at a cost exceeding $ 600 million.

The government also announced a plan to construct 3 new railways with a length of 1310 km, namely the "Cairo-Luxor" line with a length of 700 km, the "Luxor-Hurghada" line of 300 km, and the "Alexandria-Cairo" line of 210 km.

There is another government plan that was announced, which includes the path of developing the infrastructure of the Railways Authority at the level of stations, signaling systems, transfers, and the establishment of electronic crossings.

Last January, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi renewed his talk about the government's keenness to develop the railway sector, stressing that by the end of this year, the entire train fleet will be renewed.

And he added, "In December 2021, they compute me to raise the efficiency of the railways and stations. You will not see a single car or an old tractor."

It seems that the government efforts in the railway sector are not enough for the citizens to feel. In a hearing of the Minister of Transport, Kamel Al-Wazir - before the House of Representatives last January - Parliament Representative Reham Abdel Nabi asked the need to pay attention to the quality of services inside the trains and to pay attention to facilities and modernize tractors.

Electric train

Controversy also erupted on the communication sites about what the authority announced about preparing for the establishment of a high-speed electric train, which is scheduled to take place in 4 stages with a length of 1,000 km, the first being "Ain Sokhna-El Alamein", the second "October-Aswan" and the third "Hurghada-Safaga-" Qena, and the fourth, Alexandria-Salloum, at a cost of $ 23 billion, to be completed in 2023.

With the government announcement of the project and its high cost, voices opposed to it and were surprised by the official investment in a high-cost project, at a time when more important sectors such as health and education suffer from neglect, without any action on the part of state institutions.

The pioneers of social media asked about the economic feasibility of the project, especially the first phase of it, "Ain Sokhna - El Alamein", which will pass through desert cities, including the new administrative capital.

What is more important and more important if it were to pay the entire cost with debts and interest?


A bed and an oxygen cylinder in my hospital?


Or an electric train connecting the tourist resorts to each other? # The electrified train for all Egyptians pic.twitter.com/PDvrJz2a7J

- Haytham Abokhalil (@ haythamabokhal1) January 16, 2021


Building

an electric train at a cost of $ 23 billion ...

someone told you that we are too poor.

Oh, we are so poor, too


. # Electrified train for all Egyptians pic.twitter.com/XDlyzc5agh

- Malika (@ Malak4alak) January 16, 2021

# The electrified train for all Egyptians Al-Sisi always loves to imagine, with his failed achievements, a new reason for the thieves 336 billion pounds, billions of pounds are easy for them even though we are poor, God damn you in every book pic.twitter.com/o5XCtL7uGN

- Ahmed Shaker (@ ahmedhesan19) January 17, 2021

Oh uncle, we want hospitals # Electrified_Train_for all Egyptians pic.twitter.com/Xh3HDKUzKA

- Sara Adel (@ SaraAde56800103) January 16, 2021

# The electrified train for all Egyptians I myself ask Sisi to the question that Sisi posed to the member of the People's Assembly: "Are you studying this speech?"

Spending the income of Egypt for the next hundred years is a crime not less than the adventures and foolishness of Khedive Ismail, who paved the way for the British occupation, which lasted more than 80 years.

- sameh sakr (@ sssakr1) January 18, 2021