Egyptian National Railways (ENR; Arabic: السكك الحديدية المصرية, romanised: Al-Sikak al-Ḥadīdiyyah al-Miṣriyyah) is the national railway of Egypt and managed by the parastatal Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA; Arabic: الهيئة القومية لسكك حديد مصر, romanised: Al-Haī’ah al-Qawmiyya li-Sikak Ḥadīd Miṣr, lit. ’National Agency for Egypt’s Railways’).
History of Egyptian National Railways
1833–1877
In 1833, Muhammad Ali Pasha considered building a railway between Suez and Cairo to improve transit between Europe and India. Muhammad Ali had bought the rail when the project was abandoned due to pressure from the French, who were interested in building a canal instead.
Muhammad Ali died in 1848, and in 1851, his successor Abbas I contracted Robert Stephenson to build Egypt’s first standard gauge railway. The first section, between Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast and Kafr el-Zayyat on the Rosetta branch of the Nile, was opened in 1854. This was the first railway in the Ottoman Empire, Africa, and the Middle East. In the same year, Abbas died and was succeeded by Sa’id Pasha, whose reign, the section between Kafr el-Zayyat and Cairo, was completed in 1856, followed by an extension from Cairo to Suez in 1858. This completed the first modern transport link between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, as Ferdinand de Lesseps did not meet the Suez Canal until 1869.
At Kafr el-Zayyat, the line between Cairo and Alexandria originally crossed the Nile with an 80-foot (24 m) car float. However, on 15 May 1858, a special train conveying Sa’id’s heir presumptive, Ahmad Rifaat Pasha, fell off the float into the river, and the prince drowned. Stephenson, therefore, replaced the car float with a swing bridge nearly 500 metres (1,600 ft) long. By the end of Sa’id’s reign, branches had been completed from Banha to Zagazig on the Damietta branch of the Nile in 1860, to Mit Bera in 1861 and from Tanta to Talkha further down the Damietta Nile in 1863.
Sa’id’s successor, Isma’il Pasha, strove to modernise Egypt, adding momentum to railway development. In 1865, a new branch reached Desouk on the Rosetta Nile, and a second route between Cairo and Talkha was opened, giving a more direct link between Cairo and Zagazig. The following year, a branch southwards from Tanta reached Shibin El Kom. The network started to push southwards along the west side of the Nile with the opening of the line between Imbaba near Cairo and Minya in 1867. A short branch to Faiyum was added in 1868. A line between Zagazig and Suez via Nifisha was completed in the same year. The following year, the line to Talkha was extended to Damietta on the Mediterranean coast, and a branch opened to Salhiya and Sama’ana.
Imbaba had no rail bridge across the Nile to Cairo until 1891. However, a long line between there and a junction west of Kafr el-Zayyat opened in 1872, linking Imbaba with the national network. From Minya, the line southwards made slower progress, reaching Mallawi in 1870 and Assiut in 1874. On the west bank till Najee Hammady from the east bank of the Nile till Aswan. A shorter southward line linked Cairo with Tura in 1872 and extended to Helwan in 1875. In the Nile Delta, the same year, a short branch reached Kafr el-Sheikh, and in 1876, a line along the Mediterranean coast linking the termini at Alexandria and Rosetta was completed.
1877–1888
By 1877, Egypt had a network of critical main lines, and the Nile Delta had quite a network, but with this and other development investments, Isma’il had gotten the country deeply into debt. For its first 25 years of operation, Egypt’s national railway had never produced an annual report. A Council of Administration with Egyptian, British and French members was appointed in 1877 to organise the railway’s affairs. They published its first annual report in 1879, and in the same year, the British Government had Isma’il Pasha deposed, exiled and replaced with his son Tewfik Pasha. In 1882, the British essentially invaded and occupied Egypt.
In 1883, the ERA appointed Frederick Harvey Trevithick, nephew of Francis Trevithick, as Chief Mechanical Engineer. Trevithick found a heterogeneous fleet of up to 246 steam locomotives of many designs from different builders in England, Scotland, France and the USA. This lack of standardisation of locomotives or components complicated locomotive maintenance and general railway operation. With these developments, the Egyptian Railway Administration’s rail network stagnated until 1888, but it also put its management in much better order.
From 1877 to 1888, the ERA struggled to keep up with even essential maintenance. Still, by 1887, Trevithick started a programme to renew 85 of the very mixed fleet of locomotives with new boilers, cylinders and motion. He replaced the others with four standard locomotive types introduced from 1889 onwards: one class of 0-6-0 for freight, one class of 2-4-0 for mixed traffic, one 0-6-0T tank locomotive for shunting and one class of only ten 2-2-2 locomotives for express passenger trains. Trevithick ensured these four classes shared as many standard components as possible, simplifying maintenance and reducing costs.
1888–1914
By 1888, the ERA was in better order and could resume expanding its network. In 1890, a second line opened between Cairo and Tura. On 15 May 1892, the Imbaba Bridge was built across the Nile, linking Cairo with the line South following the river’s west bank. The civil engineer for the bridge was Gustave Eiffel. (It was reformed and renewed in 1924 and is the only railway bridge across the Nile in Cairo.)
Cairo’s main Misr Station was rebuilt in 1892. The south line was extended further upriver from Assiut, reaching Girga in 1892, Nag Hammadi in 1896, Qena in 1897, and Luxor and Aswan in 1898. With the railroad’s completion, construction began the same year on the first Aswan Dam and the Assiut Barrage, central elements of a plan initiated in 1890 by the Government to modernise and more fully develop Egypt’s existing irrigated agriculture, export potential, and ability to repay debts to European creditors.
In 1891, a link line was opened between Damanhur and Desouk in the north. The line to Shibin El Kom was extended south to Minuf in the same year and reached Ashum in 1896. By then, a line across the Nile Delta from a junction north of Talkha on the line to Damietta had reached Biyala. By 1898, this reached Kafr el-Sheikh, completing a more direct route between Damietta and Alexandria. An essential extension along the west bank of the Suez Canal linking Nifisha with Ismaïlia, Al Qantarah West and Port Said was completed in 1904. After that, network expansion was slower, but two short link lines north of Cairo were completed in 1911, followed by a link between Zagazig and Zifta in 1914.
Sinai
The first El Ferdan Railway Bridge over the Suez Canal for the Palestine Military Railway was completed in April 1918. It was considered a hindrance to shipping, so it was removed after the First World War. During the Second World War, a steel swing bridge was built in 1942, which was damaged by a steamship and removed in 1947.
A double swing bridge was completed in 1954, but the 1956 Israeli invasion of Sinai severed rail traffic across the canal for the third time. A replacement bridge was completed in 1963 but destroyed in the Six-Day War 1967. A new double swing bridge was completed in 2001 and is the largest swing bridge in the world. However, the construction of the New Suez Canal has since disconnected the Sinai from the rest of Egypt’s rail network again. Instead of the bridge, two rail tunnels are planned under the canal, one near Ismailia and one in Port Said.
The Palestine Railways main line historically linked Al Qantarah East with Palestine and Lebanon. It was built in three phases during the First and Second World Wars. Commenced in 1916, it was extended to Rafah on the border with Palestine as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force’s Sinai and Palestine Campaign against the Ottoman Empire. The route was extended through to Haifa in Mandate Palestine after World War I and to Tripoli, Lebanon, in 1942, and it became a vital part of the wartime supply route for Egypt.
As a result of the 1947–1949 Palestine war, the Palestine Railways main line was severed at the 1949 Armistice Line. The 1956 Israeli invasion severed Sinai‘s rail link with the rest of Egypt and reconnected its rail link with Israel. Israel captured a 4211 class 0-6-0 diesel shunting locomotive and five 545 class 2-6-0 steam locomotives. Israel also captured rolling stock, including a six-wheel coach dating from 1893 and a 30-ton steam crane built in 1950, which Israel Railways then appropriated into its breakdown fleet. Before being forced to withdraw from Sinai in March 1957, Israel systematically destroyed infrastructure, including the railway. By 1963, the railway in Sinai was reconnected to the rest of Egypt but remained disconnected from Israel.
In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured more Egyptian railway equipment, including one EMD G8, four EMD G12 and three EMD G16 diesel locomotives, all of which were appropriated into Israel Railways stock. After 1967, Israel again destroyed the railway across occupied Sinai and, this time using the materials in the construction of the Bar Lev Line of fortifications along the Suez Canal.
After long service on Israel Railways, the 30-ton crane, 1893 Belgian 6-wheel coach, and one of the EMD G16 diesels are all preserved in the Israel Railway Museum in Haifa.
Museum of Egyptian National Railways
Egypt’s railway museum was built in 1932 next to Misr Station (now Ramses Station) in Cairo. The museum opened in January 1933 to mark the city’s hosting of the International Railway Congress. Its stock of over 700 items includes models, historic drawings and photographs. Among its most prominent exhibits are three preserved steam locomotives:
2-4-2 no. 30, built by Robert Stephenson and Company in 1862
0-6-0 no. 986 (originally 189, then 142), created by Robert Stephenson and Company in 1861
4-4-2 no. 194 (originally 678) made by the North British Locomotive Company in 1905
Operations
In 2005, ENR operated 5,625 kilometres (3,495 mi) of standard gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) track. Most of the rail system is focused on the Nile Delta, with lines essentially fanning from Cairo. In addition, a line to the west along the coast could eventually link to Libya as it did during World War II. From Cairo goes a central line south along the east bank of the Nile to Aswan (Sellel) in Upper Egypt. Neighboring Israel uses the same standard gauge but has been disconnected since 1948.
In the South, Sudan’s railway system operates on a narrow gauge and is reached after using the ferry past the Aswan dam. Rail service is critical to Egypt’s transportation infrastructure but has limited transit service. Sixty-three kilometres (39 mi) of the network is electrified, namely commuter lines between Cairo-Helwan and Cairo-Heliopolis. The length of railways in Egypt is 10,500 kilometres (6,500 mi), with another 5,500 kilometres (3,400 mi) of railway lines currently being constructed.
ENR buys locomotives and rail abroad, but passenger coaches are built and refurbished in Egypt by the Société Générale Egyptienne de Matériel de Chemins de Fer (SEMAF).
The cargo volume transported by ENR is about 12 million tonnes annually.
Services were severely disrupted during the political protests in early 2011; operating hours of the Cairo Metro were shortened to comply with the curfew.
On 16 January 2015, Egyptian National Railways signed a €100 million contract with Alstom to supply signalling equipment for the 240 km Beni Suef-Asyut line and maintain services for five years. Also, Alstom will provide an intelligent lock electronic interlocking system to replace the existing electromechanical system, increasing the number of trains that operate on the route by more than 80%.
High-speed rail project
On 1 September 2021, the National Authority for Tunnels signed a $4.5 billion contract with Siemens Mobility, Orascom Construction SAE and Arab Contractors to build and maintain a 660 km (410 mi) high-speed electrified line (dubbed “Green Line” or “Suez Canal on rails”), to be also used by freight trains, connecting Ain Sokhna to Mersa Matruh and Alexandria, including electrification and installation of ETCS Level 2, Siemens will also supply Velaro high-speed trains, Desiro regional sets, and Vectron freight locomotives. Further, two lines, one connecting the Greater Cairo region to Aswan and Luxor via Hurghada to Safaga, are being considered. In May 2022, the contract was extended to include the two other lines.
Passenger trains
ER is Egypt’s backbone of passenger transportation, with 800 million miles annually. Most of the network connects the densely populated area of the Nile Delta with Cairo and Alexandria as hubs. Air-conditioned passenger trains usually have 1st and 2nd class service, while non-airconditioned trains have 2nd and 3rd class. As a social service, fares in commuter and 3rd class passenger trains are low.
Large volumes of tourist traffic during Eid cause problems due to a shortage of rolling stock.
Sleeper trains
The Alexandria–Cairo–Luxor–Aswan route is served daily in both directions by air-conditioned sleeper trains of Abela, Egypt. This service is beautiful for tourists who can spend the night on the train as it covers the stretch between Cairo and Luxor. A luxury express train links Cairo with Marsa Matruh towards the Libyan border.
Locomotives
Current
The vast majority of ENR locomotives are diesel.
In 2009, ENR began taking delivery of 40 Electro-Motive Diesel JT42CWRM (Series 66) locomotives for passenger services. ENR received 80 dual-cab ES40ACi locomotives in two versions (painted blue for passenger trains and red/black for freight trains).
In 2017, Egyptian National Railways placed an order for 100 ES30ACi Light Evolution Series Locomotives valued at $575 million that can be used for passengers or freight rail. The first ten units were delivered in November 2019.
Bus and ferry services
ENR serves several places by bus services, including Abu Simbel (bus/ferry), Sharm el Sheik, Siwa Oasis, and Hurghada.
Accidents
- 18 April 2021, 2021 Toukh train accident: At least 32 people were killed and 109 injured after a train derailed in Toukh.
- 26 March 2021, Sohag train collision: Two trains collide in the Tahta district of the Upper Egypt governorate of Sohag, resulting in 18 deaths and 200 injuries.
- 27 February 2019, Ramses Station train collision
- 11 August 2017, Alexandria train collision
- 14 January 2013, the Badrashin train accident
- 17 November 2012, Manfalut train accident: A train crashes into a bus carrying school children at a level crossing near Manfalut, killing 51 and injuring 17.
- 25 October 2009: Collision at Al-Ayyat in Giza, 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of Cairo. According to a security official, an initial report stated that 30 people were suspected killed and 50 injured.
- 4 September 2006: A passenger train collides with a freight train north of Cairo, killing five and injuring 30.
- 21 August 2006, Qalyoub rail crash: Two trains collide in the town of Qalyoub, 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of Cairo, killing 57 people and injuring 128.
- 20 February 2002, Al Ayatt train disaster: A train packed to double capacity catches fire, and 373 are killed.
- 2000: A train crashed into a minibus at an intersection south of Cairo, with nine killed and two wounded.
- November 1999: 10 killed between Cairo and Alexandria
- April 1999: 10 killed in Northern Egypt head-on collision between two trains
- 1998 Kafr Al-Dawar accident: “About 50” killed
- 1997 2 major accidents: one with 14 killed, the other with seven killed
- 1995: Derailment just north of Cairo: 9 killed; Quesna accident (collision with bus): 49 killed; Beni Sweif accident: 75 killed
- 1994 collision: more than 40 killed
- 1993 collision: 40 killed
- 1992 head-on collision at Badrashin: 43 killed
Problems
The debacle of the 2002 Al Ayyat railway accident showed significant deficiencies in the status and maintenance of the equipment. The ERA immediately initiated a program to update equipment and improve safety. While some services have been privatised (i.e., food service and sleeper trains), ENR is considering further steps in privatisation to increase efficiency and improve service. In addition, ENR has dormant real estate holdings that it plans to utilise more profitably.
The 2006 Qalyoub train collision led to further criticism of the ENR management, raising underfunding and corruption issues. The head of the ERA, Hanafy Abdel-Qawi, was dismissed one day after the accident. An investment programme was launched in 2007 to modernise the rail network and improve safety standards in response to the accidents.
Poor maintenance, lack of investment and negligent railway employees have led to frequent crashes on Egypt’s railway system. The 2002 Al Ayyat railway accident was the deadliest train disaster that killed over 373 people.
Major stations
Most significant lines originate from Ramses Station, Cairo or Misr Station, Alexandria:
- Marsa Matruh
- Suez
- Ismailia
- Port Said
- Mansoura
- Damietta
- Giza
- Minya
- Luxor
- Aswan
Railway links to adjacent countries
- Libya – under construction (same gauge – 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)) (suspended)
- Sudan – none (break-of-gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)/1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)) (proposed)
- Gaza Strip – defunct since 1948
- Israel – defunct since 1948
Narrow gauge
A modest network of narrow gauge railways at Kurna, on the west Nile bank opposite Luxor. It has a gauge of 2 ft (610 mm) and is used for transporting sugar cane. A smaller network of the same gauge for the same purpose exists on the east bank, around the southern outskirts of Luxor.
Haulage is by a diesel locomotive. Rolling stock includes rakes of bogie bolster wagons, typically seen loaded high with sugar cane.
