Partially Egyptian-made train gets first test-run

Egypt’s national rail service will trial a new, partially Egyptian-made train on Saturday afternoon, sending the train on a test-run between Cairo and Alexandria.

Nagwa Albeer, the spokesperson for Egyptian National Railways, told Ahram Online that the train is the first train that has been produced with “greater than 50 percent Egyptian contribution” to operate on the country’s railways.

The fully air-conditioned train is the product of a joint manufacturing project between the state-owned Arab Organisation for Industrialisation and a Chinese company, which made the train body.

The new train also has a VIP section where seats on the Cairo-Alexandria route will cost LE100, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

The rest of the tickets run at LE65 a piece.

Ahmed Hamed, the head of Egyptian National Railways, told Al-Ahram Arabic website that the train will not be in service until technical evaluations of its safety have been completed.

Saturday afternoon’s trial run will take place without any passengers.

Egypt has suffered a number of costly train accidents in recent years, often attributed to the outdated equipment and infrastructure.

In 2013, six train crashes took place in Egypt, leaving dozens killed and injured.

The country’s worst train disaster took place in 2002, when a fire aboard a train headed from Cairo to Aswan killed 361 people.

source: Ahram online