Egypt to increase metro fares starting Monday – minister

Cairo metro fares for all lines will be increased starting Monday, said Egyptian Transportation Minister Kamel Al-Wazir on Sunday.

“A ticket for a journey of between one and nine stops will cost 5 pounds instead of 3 pounds, a ticket for 9 to 16 stops will cost 7 pounds instead of 5 pounds, and a ticket for 16 to 40 stops will cost 10 pounds instead of 7 pounds,” Al-Wazir told Ala Masoolati television show on Sada El-Balad channel.

“The metro lines consume electricity and have employees’ salaries to pay. Revenues can’t cover their operational costs,” the minister said, adding that first and second metro lines need to be renovated, like the third line.

The operational costs of the metro are 8 billion pounds, while revenues are 4 billion pounds, Al-Wazir added.

“There are 5 million workers, engineers and technicians working in the metro, aside from the indirect workers who could double this number,” he added.

A new ten-year deal had been signed with an advertising company for 110 million pounds a year.

On Sunday, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated the new Adly Mansour metro station, part of a series of developments of the metro’s fourth line.

Sisi instructed Al-Wazir to set the appropriate prices for railway and metro services to ensure the continued efficient operation of the services’ facilities, hinting at an increase in fares, especially since a major part of the new projects’ costs is provided through external loans.