3Deal | Egypt Posts (Selection from 2013)

During 2013 I created a personal (not official) website for Egyptian Railways, to try to create an international community interest in this interesting and historic system. This coincided with the revolution and military coup, which led to far-reaching consequences for the railways. I have preserved some of my 2013 blog posts here below:

There hasn't been much use for the modern equivalent of tickets like this since 14th August

28 October 2013

Still no Cairo-Upper Egypt trains

Rumours are still flying about when and how many trains will appear on Egypt’s network, especially services south of Cairo. Although some Lower Egypt services were reinstated from Cairo last week, Upper Egypt services remain cancelled until the security authorities give the go-ahead. With no diversionary routes, lots of overnight services and many Egyptians still angry...

Mark GoldfinchArchive, Egypt

First trains at Cairo after the 68-day stoppage. (Courtesy al-Masry el-Youm)

23 October 2013

Trains return to Cairo after 68 days

Normality started to return to Egypt’s railway system earlier today as the first trains in 68 days left Cairo Central station. 14th August was the day when two Muslim Brotherhood protest camps in central Cairo were forcibly removed with great loss of life by the Egyptian security authorities, who shut down the intercity train network...

Mark GoldfinchArchive, Egypt

23 October 2013

Cairo Central Re-Opens

This is an atmospheric report from almasry alyoum detailing the situation at Cairo Central early this morning, as the first train in 68 days prepared to depart, and then on board Train 903 to Alexandria. (Initial train times here). There is a short interesting video here and I’ve translated the first half of the report (around the station)...

Mark GoldfinchArchive, Egypt

10 October 2013

Short Crime & Security Round-up

Sunday’s public holiday to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of Egypt’s war with Israel (6th October) saw some security incidents and casualties including fatalities, but the media noted the railways remained unaffected: Extremely tight security cordons sealed off Cairo Central on 6th October to prevent any attempt to gain access to the station. Elsewhere no infringements or acts...

Mark GoldfinchArchive, Egypt

10 October 2013

The ‘pitiful state’ of Damietta station

[Egypt 2013 Archive] Sometimes you read a report that draws you in but when you finish it you have more questions than answers. To be honest, that happens quite a lot with press reports about Egyptian railways because most journalists don’t really understand railways systems, either don’t use or misuse Arabic railway technical language and don’t...

Mark GoldfinchArchive, Egypt

From Middle East Movers by Colonel Hugh Mackintosh

29 September 2013

History nearly repeats itself near Suez

Perhaps officials are right to be extremely cautious about permitting train services to resume. The last thing they want is for anyone to be killed in a train wreck caused by ‘terrorism’, something known as a ‘spectacular’. It is quite possible that it has taken security officials this long (since 14th August) to put in...

Mark GoldfinchArchive, Egypt

25 September 2013

Security incidents in quiet places

This post deals with a protest on the pretty Benha-Minuf link line and and a bomb scare in Alexandria. In the absence of any photos, I’ve added some old tickets from my collection. From el-Balad yesterday came this story: Dozens of Muslim Brotherhood members organised a demonstration on a train at Saris el-Layan station in Minufiya Governorate....

Mark GoldfinchEgypt

1 September 2013

45 Egyptian train crashes in 20 years 1993-2013

Despite the irony of there currently being almost no trains in Egypt [written 1/Sep/2013], one writer (Shima Hafni) ran a piece this week excoriating the safety record of Egyptian Railways over the past 20 years. I thought the article was worth translating and reproducing here as it had a definite anguish and certain details about...

Mark GoldfinchArchive, Egypt

My old sketch of the station building at Shabshir el-Hissa (1992)

1 September 2013

Accident at Shabshir el-Hissa

After posting a list of train accidents earlier in this set, I was rather disturbed to see the pattern continuing. Here’s yet another level crossing collision from last Wednesday night, luckily with no fatalities but 12 passengers from the tourist coach reported injured. A Tanta to Muhalla el-Kubra local service seems to have hit a coach at...

Mark GoldfinchArchive, Egypt

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