Egypt - General Information: Difference between revisions
Geoff Blyth (talk | contribs) |
Geoff Blyth (talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 132: | Line 132: | ||
To put ENR into context, it is certainly the most complex and densely trafficked system in Africa; services are generally quite frequent depending on context and run with the exceptions below on a daily almost unchanging basis; similarly trafficked systems in north Africa are all much smaller while the larger systems like South African Railways have typically only 1 train a day on a few principle routes. All of ENR is standard gauge , its passenger routes amount to about 3500Km; the only other significant passenger operations are trams and metro in Cairo (Sketchy reports indicate a lot of damage to Cairo tramway infrastructure during the assorted riots punctuating transition from one administration to another with trams burnt out and wires torn down and stolen, also the Helwan tramway system, south of Cairo, has been reported as out of operation due to dewirements but whether this persists is unknown) and trams in Alexandria. The bulk of the system lies in the delta roughly bounded by Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said; beyond these rough bounds are routes along the northern coast to Mersa Matruh and up the Nile Valley all the way to High Dam south of Aswan some 900Km south of Cairo. | To put ENR into context, it is certainly the most complex and densely trafficked system in Africa; services are generally quite frequent depending on context and run with the exceptions below on a daily almost unchanging basis; similarly trafficked systems in north Africa are all much smaller while the larger systems like South African Railways have typically only 1 train a day on a few principle routes. All of ENR is standard gauge , its passenger routes amount to about 3500Km; the only other significant passenger operations are trams and metro in Cairo (Sketchy reports indicate a lot of damage to Cairo tramway infrastructure during the assorted riots punctuating transition from one administration to another with trams burnt out and wires torn down and stolen, also the Helwan tramway system, south of Cairo, has been reported as out of operation due to dewirements but whether this persists is unknown) and trams in Alexandria. The bulk of the system lies in the delta roughly bounded by Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said; beyond these rough bounds are routes along the northern coast to Mersa Matruh and up the Nile Valley all the way to High Dam south of Aswan some 900Km south of Cairo. | ||
Cairo termini; Cairo’s main terminus and indeed through station is Ramses, this would become familiar almost immediately to any traveller in Egypt but there are some complications, services operating on the route to Etay el Barud well north of Cairo initially set off south and sharing the Nile bridge then veer off at Imbaba and run along the west bank of the western branch of the Nile. The two platforms are well out of sight accessed from the west side of Ramses and are positioned south of the over bridge and it’s quite possible not to find your train and miss it if you don’t find these platforms exist! Cairo Furu’a terminus is very close to but separate from Ramses situated just to its north east, it is served by services to/from Minuf and most readily accessed by the subways part way down the platforms and walking up the side of the station; it enjoys a separate route from Shibra el Kheima about 5 km out most notably running around the carriage sidings away from Ramses. Opposite this and again close to Ramses is Limun station which was once apparently Italianate in style but now has a gloomy interior and an exterior like a bomb shelter. It takes traffic from Zaqazig and is accessed via a wholly different route from south of Shubra el-Kheima. It can theoretically be accessed via a gate at the top end of Ramsess platform 1 but if they have locked this it’s a 5-10 minute walk around the block. | Cairo termini; Cairo’s main terminus and indeed through station is Ramses, this would become familiar almost immediately to any traveller in Egypt but there are some complications, services operating on the route to Etay el Barud well north of Cairo initially set off south and sharing the Nile bridge then veer off at Imbaba and run along the west bank of the western branch of the Nile. The two platforms are well out of sight accessed from the west side of Ramses and are positioned south of the over bridge and it’s quite possible not to find your train and miss it if you don’t find these platforms exist! Cairo Furu’a terminus is very close to but separate from Ramses situated just to its north east, it is served by services to/from Minuf and most readily accessed by the subways part way down the platforms and walking up the side of the station; it enjoys a separate route from Shibra el Kheima about 5 km out most notably running around the carriage sidings away from Ramses. Opposite this and again close to Ramses is Limun station which was once apparently Italianate in style but now has a gloomy interior and an exterior like a bomb shelter. It takes traffic from Zaqazig and is accessed via a wholly different route from south of Shubra el-Kheima. It can theoretically be accessed via a gate at the top end of Ramsess platform 1 but if they have locked this it’s a 5-10 minute walk around the block. | ||
South of Cairo the 2004 timetable had trains serving a very obscure branch off the main Luxor route to 6th October once a day and from Beni Suef to Lahun twice a day (once Fridays) however both attempts to find these trains and enquiries locally and back in Cairo all seem to indicate that services on these routes have ceased. (Notably in 2020 a new High Speed project mentioned this as a traffic node on its projected north south route) | South of Cairo the 2004 timetable had trains serving a very obscure branch off the main Luxor route to 6th October once a day and from Beni Suef to Lahun twice a day (once Fridays) however both attempts to find these trains and enquiries locally and back in Cairo all seem to indicate that services on these routes have ceased. (Notably in 2020 a new High Speed project mentioned this as a traffic node on its projected north south route) | ||
Revision as of 10:33, 13 September 2021
Country Name
Egypt, Misr مصر
National railway system
National Railway Operator
Egyptian National Railways (Al-Sikak al-Ḥadīdiyyah al-Miṣriyyah السكك الحديدية المصرية)
Language
Arabic; some English is written and spoken in tourist areas. Tourist information staff do of course speak English but will almost invariably advise taking a “Superjet” air conditioned bus.
Timetables and related information are shown at main stations only in Arabic. Local railwaymen speak no, or practically, no English.
Currency
Egyptian Pound [EGP] as of 12/20 approximate value £1 = EGP 21
UIC code
90
Timetable
Journey Planner
Downloadable Timetable
The Complete Egypt Train Timetable offers some key intercity journeys
Printed Timetable
None known that are current.
The only comprehensive timetable of ENR translated into English was that produced by Hassoun Media (Gary Goldfinch) in 2004. It contained a geographical map of the whole ENR system and a schematic of the web of lines in the Delta.
A PDF version of the Hassoun Media 2004/2005 timetable spreadsheet is available here.
Mentioning Gary Goldfinch, he also authored "Steel in the Sand - The History of Egypt and its Railways" (2003 - ISBN 1-900467-15-1) which is still available, but contains no really useful maps.
Engineering Information
None.
Bus Information
A useful site is the The Complete Egypt Bus Timetable, which lists a selection of main inter-city routes and to tourists destinations many of which are far from any railway line.
Often mini-buses or similar (pick up trucks) ply in an apparently random (to the foreign observer) pattern often travelling once full (or full enough to accommodate the driver) from wherever you are to where you wish to go so long as you can clearly impart where you wish to go! These might just be within larger towns/cities or in some cases over long distances taking many hours.
Maps
Printed Maps
World Railway Atlas Vol. 7 North, East and Central Africa, First Edition, December 2009, by Neil Robinson (ISBN-13: 978-954-92184-3-5).
Web-based Maps
has a lot of variable maps in various forms and histories; but that entitled
ALEXANDRIA - GIZA | Phase 1 of High-speed Rail Network is in fact a very clear schematic of railways in the Delta; in fact south of this map now the only PASSENGER railway runs to Aswan via Luxor, the "branches" having closed to passenger traffic if they ever carried.
Ticketing
There are two major categories of trains in Egypt:
- Main line trains and sleepers that foreigners might be expected to use and which often require reservations. The sleeper services up the Nile and to Mersa Matruh need to be booked in advance in summer. This can be done online through ENR itself or various agencies. See the The Man in Seat 61 Cairo to Alexandria section for an excellent and up to date discussion on this and many other related topics. The deluxe sleeper trains from Cairo to Luxor & Aswan: are privately operated and not part of the ENR ticketing system, see:- ERNST Sleeping Car Trains
- Ordinary services. Foreigners are NOT expected on these and one's presence will be viewed with suspicion but this should not prevent travel. Tickets can be bought either at ticket offices at stations or on the trains. Reservations are certainly not required but the trains can be very crowded. Tickets are, however, absurdly cheap so loose change and small notes are useful, especially if paying on train. If tickets are bought from a ticket office, they may well be Edmondson style tickets in Arabic and English.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure Authority
National Agency for Egypt's Railways - Egyptian Railway Authority - ERA
Network Statement
None as such known... various statements mostly involving major infrastructure projects occasionally emerge
Gauge
Standard.
The narrow gauge systems had largely disappeared by the 1960s or earlier.
Electrification
Cairo Metro Line 1 - 1,500 Volts DC overhead, Lines 2 & 3 - 750 Volts DC 3rd rail
Rule of the road
The bulk of the network is single track but, from observation where double track exists, the rule appears to be left hand running e.g. at passing loops. This reflects its origins in British operational practice.
Distances
Distances including most intermediate stations were published in the 2004 Gary Goldfinch English Translation of the contemporary ENR timetable. Maps in Neil Robinson's World Railway Atlas, Volume 7 [2009], have distances, in km, shown at stations; otherwise all but summary and sample distances are unknown.
Other Railways
Sugar Cane railways 610mm gauge exist mainly on the West bank (numerous ferries for tourists visiting Valley of the Kings etc etc) but some on East bank of the Nile around Luxor; some can be seen from the main line south towards Luxor; these lines can be readily observed and photographed from public places without difficulty.
Tourist Lines
None. But there is a railway museum at Ramses station in Cairo that underwent considerable expansion in 2016.
https://www.sis.gov.eg/Story/142949/The-Egyptian-Railway-Museum?lang=en-us
Metro
Cairo has a three line metro with a system map at Cairo Metro Map.
General info on passenger service, including opening times and line lengths, is given in English at Cairo Metro info.
Coaches only for women, and their families, are provided in all trains with fines for men entering them.
Tram/LRT-systems
Alexandria: this 32km standard gauge system opened in 1863 and serves 20 routes, with 140 stops. It is one of only three tram systems in the world that uses double-deck cars (the others are Blackpool and Hong Kong). Typically services are operated with two or three cars/trailers coupled together; one vehicle is for women only.
A basic system line map is provided by the Alexandra Passenger Transport Authority - APTA Tram line map. See also the Urban Rail map. The system is to be modernised, so should persist into the foreseeable future but in probably a less "quaint" format see the Railway Gazette article.
Cairo: this metre gauge system was once the most extensive tram system in Africa, spanning the whole city including suburbs like Heliopolis. It covered 120 km but shrank with both metro expansion and demands for road space over several decades. Events surrounding the Arab Spring in Cairo caused it to be severely damaged. Parts did persist in the suburbs but it is understood it finally succumbed around 2015.
Recent and future changes
On 1 September 2021 the government announced a US$4·5bn contract for the construction of 660 km of ‘modern, safe, and integrated’ mixed traffic electrified railway connecting Ain Sokhna, on the Red Sea near Suez, with Alexandria and Marsa Matrouh on the Mediterranean via the New Administrative Capital and 6th October City. This is intended as the first phase of a planned 1 800 km railway development programme.
In March 2021 the World Bank approved a US$440m loan to support the Railway Improvement & Safety for Egypt (RISE) project, which has a total value of US$681·1m, with a US$241·1m contribution from ENR. It is a continuation of the ENR Restructuring Project concluded in 2020, which included the modernisation of signalling on the Alexandria – Cairo and Beni Suef – Nag Hammadi routes. RISE continues work on those routes, and renewal of track and signalling between Cairo and Beni Suef. Rail’s share of the passenger market is predicted to increase by 2029 from 8% to 15% and of the freight market from 6% to 10%.
Various local services, some over lines of considerable length, have disappeared over the years:
Luxor - Al Kharga by 2015 and probably much earlier; Ishmailiya - Bir el Abd (Sinai) probably around 2011;
Mersa Matruh - Sollum by 2007;
Special Notes
Introduction: General comments and a focus on some of the more unusual sections based on travels around 2007 (with an update where available)
Travelling around by rail
In general rail travel in Egypt is not particularly difficult, nor are there any sections of the network from which foreigners are banned, although plenty where they are not expected to travel. Outside the tourist areas, one may be regarded with deep suspicion, and certainly curiosity, being probably the only westerner they have seen. “Where you go” is the standard question if they know any English. However, reports from Egypt are sparse, and the situation may change.
Consequently anybody intent on much of a trip (and certainly anywhere off the beaten track)should obtain the only available translation of the ENR timetable. This is based on the July 2004 timetable but, with some notable exceptions mentioned below, is still largely unchanged. Things have changed on some peripheral lines, as commented below.
Photography
Photography is technically illegal, and subject to fines and confiscation, as all public utilities are considered military installations. The current security situation means that this position has certainly not been relaxed. However, a little common sense on where and when to take photos means there is usually no problem but one must be prepared for the occasional railway policeman or railway employee intervening. Conversely a correspondent was given cab rides and taken pictures quite openly, and even of train crew themselves at their insistence.
To put ENR into context, it is certainly the most complex and densely trafficked system in Africa; services are generally quite frequent depending on context and run with the exceptions below on a daily almost unchanging basis; similarly trafficked systems in north Africa are all much smaller while the larger systems like South African Railways have typically only 1 train a day on a few principle routes. All of ENR is standard gauge , its passenger routes amount to about 3500Km; the only other significant passenger operations are trams and metro in Cairo (Sketchy reports indicate a lot of damage to Cairo tramway infrastructure during the assorted riots punctuating transition from one administration to another with trams burnt out and wires torn down and stolen, also the Helwan tramway system, south of Cairo, has been reported as out of operation due to dewirements but whether this persists is unknown) and trams in Alexandria. The bulk of the system lies in the delta roughly bounded by Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said; beyond these rough bounds are routes along the northern coast to Mersa Matruh and up the Nile Valley all the way to High Dam south of Aswan some 900Km south of Cairo.
Cairo termini; Cairo’s main terminus and indeed through station is Ramses, this would become familiar almost immediately to any traveller in Egypt but there are some complications, services operating on the route to Etay el Barud well north of Cairo initially set off south and sharing the Nile bridge then veer off at Imbaba and run along the west bank of the western branch of the Nile. The two platforms are well out of sight accessed from the west side of Ramses and are positioned south of the over bridge and it’s quite possible not to find your train and miss it if you don’t find these platforms exist! Cairo Furu’a terminus is very close to but separate from Ramses situated just to its north east, it is served by services to/from Minuf and most readily accessed by the subways part way down the platforms and walking up the side of the station; it enjoys a separate route from Shibra el Kheima about 5 km out most notably running around the carriage sidings away from Ramses. Opposite this and again close to Ramses is Limun station which was once apparently Italianate in style but now has a gloomy interior and an exterior like a bomb shelter. It takes traffic from Zaqazig and is accessed via a wholly different route from south of Shubra el-Kheima. It can theoretically be accessed via a gate at the top end of Ramsess platform 1 but if they have locked this it’s a 5-10 minute walk around the block.
South of Cairo the 2004 timetable had trains serving a very obscure branch off the main Luxor route to 6th October once a day and from Beni Suef to Lahun twice a day (once Fridays) however both attempts to find these trains and enquiries locally and back in Cairo all seem to indicate that services on these routes have ceased. (Notably in 2020 a new High Speed project mentioned this as a traffic node on its projected north south route)
