Egypt is the second country in the world after England, which introduced the railways to its land, and the Egyptian railways are the first lines to be built in Africa and the Middle East, as their construction began in the fifties of the nineteenth century, specifically on July 12, 1851, and began operating in 1854.
Early beginnings: (2)
In 1851,the ruler Abbas I signed with the British "Robert Stephen Sen" - (son of George Stephen Sen, the inventor of the iron locomotive) - a contract worth 56 thousand English pounds to construct a railway linking the Egyptian capital and Alexandria with a length of 209 kilo meters.
The year 1854 saw the first locomotive run on the first railway line in Egypt between Cairo and the city of Kafr El-Zayat in the Delta region, and the first railway line between Cairo and Alexandria was completed in 1856, and after two years the second line between Cairo and Suez was opened, then the construction of the Cairo-Port Said line began after another two years It was not until 1887 that a railway line was built in Upper Egypt.
During the reign of the ruler Ismail (1863-1879 AD), the conditions of the railway were reformed, and the ruler Ismail made a great effort to extend it throughout the country, in order to spread urbanization, and to facilitate the movement of trade and transportation between different regions, and the railways extended from the far south of Egypt to the far north of it (Alexandria) as well as the cities of the Delta and Fayoum City
In 1898, the construction of the third railway line from Cairo to Luxor began, and a private company was established to extend the railway line to the city of Aswan in the far south under the name Qena Aswan Railway Company.
After the British entered Sudan in 1899, the occupation authorities decided to amend the train line from Luxor to Aswan and then the first waterfall in the far south of Egypt to become a natural extension of the railway network in Egypt. That project was completed in 1926, when the line extended to Wadi Halfa, within the Sudanese borders.
Suburban trains in Egypt:
Egypt entered the era of suburban trains when the Helwan line connecting the heart of Cairo with the Helwan suburb was extended during the period from 1870 to 1872. Soon urban trains (trams) spread to Cairo and were managed by a Belgian company and a French company, and these trains became the first public transportation means in Cairo. The capital of Egypt during the first quarter of the twentieth century. During the First World War, the British began to think of establishing a railway line linking Egypt and Palestine to serve the war effort. Indeed, work began on building the line from Qantara Sharq, on the east bank of the Suez Canal, to Gaza. Construction was completed in 1918.
The outbreak of the First World War 1914-1919, and after it the outbreak of the Second World War 1940-1945, led to the increasing importance of the railways for the British to use these lines to transport equipment, ammunition and soldiers, and their main reliance on these lines for transportation. In 1946, the Egyptian Royal Train was King Farouk.
After the revolution of July 23, 1952, the revolution government was interested in developing these lines and supplying them with vehicles to transport citizens. The interest in building the High Dam led to interest in railways in transporting the necessary construction tools and tasks for the workers in this huge project
The National Authority for Egypt Railways:
The National Authority for Egyptian Railways is one of the largest economic institutions in Egypt and the Arab world, and it is the largest in the field of transport services (passengers and goods). It is considered the backbone of passenger transport in Egypt, where the volume of passenger transport by rail is about 1.4 million passengers. Every day, its share of passenger transportation is more than 30% of the total transportation volume at the national level.
The Railways Authority is an active member of the Arab Railways Union and its permanent committee, as well as the Asian and Middle Eastern Railways Union, as well as an active member of the Western Railway Union, and it follows up on the periodic international conferences of these unions, and participates in its research and proposals on an ongoing basis in it and in international gatherings Similar, in pursuit of beneficial frictions with other similar sectors.
The authority provides its public with a transportation service in two parts: transporting people and transporting goods, and with regard to passenger transport, the authority provides luxurious first and second class air-conditioned high-speed trains (all lines), luxury turbo trains (Cairo - Alexandria line), and luxury sleeper trains (all year long). For Upper Egypt, and in summer from Cairo to Marsa Matrouh). The authority also facilitates express express trains in regular and mixed grades, in addition to line trains, and suburban areas in the same class.
With regard to the transportation of goods: The authority provides two types of service:
- Urgent freight transport service on the same passenger trains for some types of goods (luggage, parcels, light transport, foods, newspapers, publications and letters ...).
- The non-urgent transportation service on freight transport trains, and the authority continues to support it continuously in terms of supplying it with modern tractors and supporting its fleet of vehicles with new types with large loads. Among the commodities that are transported by these trains: bulk and packed grain, coal, sugar cane and its products, petroleum products, iron ore, phosphate ore, manufactured fertilizers, salt and all kinds of stones. And with the new trends regarding transforming the services sector into productive centers, they must be economically independent, have their sources of funding available, and achieve profits.
Facts, figures ... and successive developments:
In its plan to develop the railway facility, the state relies on raising the efficiency of the railway network infrastructure, which is represented in the renewal and maintenance of railways, developing and supporting the fleet of mobile units and raising the efficiency of performance. As well as developing the transportation service by developing new trains, raising the levels of safety devices, by developing electrical signals, and renewing crossings and central control methods. In addition to developing a group of workshops to fulfill periodic maintenance obligations for mobile units to transport passengers and goods via railways.
Egypt, as the second oldest railway in the world, has railway lines of 9 thousand and 570 km length through 705 passenger stations, 1330 crossings, 3500 thousand passenger cars, 10 thousand cargo vehicles and 800 tractors. Egypt Railways plays an effective role in the service of transporting passengers and handling goods to and from all parts of the Republic, as passengers are transported per day through 920 trips, and 4.8 million tons of goods per year, which represents only 1.2% of the volume of cargo that Transferred in the Arab Republic of Egypt.
Railways also link all major ports with iron links linking them to Egypt's railway network, with the establishment of the necessary rails to serve the berths and internal perimeters of each. The statistics of the National Authority for Egyptian Railways indicate the following:
Passenger transport: 500 million passengers annually (about 1.4 million passengers per day).
Cargo transportation: 6 million tons annually.
Railroad network:
The total length of the network is 9,570 km.
Quad-line tracks of 20 km.
Double-line tracks 1,466 km.
Single-line tracks 3,667 km.
In addition to the railroads in yards, workshops and warehouses.
Stations:
The total number of stations reached 705 main, sub and intermediate stations, including: main stations with 22 stations - central stations with 59 stations - medium stations with 60 stations - small stations with 564 stations.
Bridges and tunnels:
Their number reached 885 bridges and tunnels as follows:
Railroad bridges on the Nile and 511 bridges
Bridge over the railway cars 58 Bridge
Tunnels for cars and pedestrians 137 tunnels
Overhead pedestrian bridges 137 bridges
Tractor fleet:
342 German locomotive, capacity of 2,475 horsepower
45 Canadian locomotive, capacity 2,475 horsepower
30 American locomotive, capacity of 1850 horsepower
253 Canadian locomotive, 1650 hp
30 Spanish maneuver locomotives, 1,200 HP
80 new American GE locomotive, 4000 hp
40 new American EMD locomotive, capacity of 3245 horsepower
820 gross
Passenger transport service:
The fleet of transporting passenger vehicles is 3500, including 850 air-conditioned vehicles. Transportation service is on the Egyptian railway network with different types of trains, ranging in speed from 90 to 120 km / hour, fast sleep trains, first and second trains, luxury air-conditioned trains, distinguished trains, developed trains, suburban commuter trains, average speed. 90 km / hour.