CAIRO: The first VIP train between Cairo and Alexandria governorates will launch Monday, Youm7 reported Sunday.
The launching ceremony will be attended by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, Minister of Transport Hany Dahi and the Chairman of the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) Abd El Aziz Seif-Eldeen, at Misr Railways Station.
The train’s non-stop trip from Cairo to Alexandria will take two hours; a first class ticket will cost 100 EGP ($12.77,) and second class fare is 70 EGP ($8.94.) The train consists of three first-class carriages, five air-conditioned second-class carriages and one buffet carriage.
“It is the first train to be fully assembled in Egypt with 50 percent made-in-Egypt materials; the train was fully manufactured inside Egypt’s SEMAF railway factory of the Arab Organization for Industrialization,” Dahi said.
He added that the train comes as a part of the ministry’s 212-carriage deal with the AOI for the manufacturing and supply of 23 trains, in participation of a Chinese company.
“The train has a lot of distinguished services include the Wi-Fi service, permanent aid unit inside the train and a first-aid man for the emergency cases,” the Ministry’s spokesperson Ayman el-Sheriey told Youm7 Sunday.
He added that the train is equipped with surveillance cameras to monitor the level of service provided for the customers, noting that smoking is prohibited on board of all carriages of the train per the law.
According to Sheriey the experimental operation is done and all technical safety and security notes were taken care of.
In June, the ministry received Chinese chassis of two air-conditioned trains as part of a 2.3-billion EGP ($301.5 million) deal of a 212 train-carriage contract, Youm7 reported.
In 2014, Dahi stated that railways in Egypt “urgently need 41 billion EGP to upgrade 700 outdated carriages,” according to the state-owned MENA.
Egypt will also plan to build a factory to locally manufacture train carriages in the Delta town of Abu Za’bal. The factory will save foreign currency used to import railway equipments, Egyptian National Railways chief Ahmed Hamed told Youm7 in April.