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Egyptian authorities agree to resume minimal train service

February 5, 2014 at 2:12 am

After 45 days off duty, security officials have permitted 14 out of 1,100 Egyptian trains to return to work, taking only two tracks.

The head of the Egyptian national train network, Hussein Zakariya, told Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk that the decision was taken after deliberate monitoring of the work of the goods trains. “It was clear that there are no problems,” he said.


Train services in Egypt were stopped by a security decision in wake of the bloody dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda Squares, where anti-coup protesters had been camping for about 45 days after the removal of President Mohamed Morsi.

According to Hussein, the two tracks where the trains returned to work are on the Alexandria-Banha and Banha-Aswan lines. All tracks to and from Cairo remained out of work.

An informed source in the transport commission said that after evaluating this pilot phase from a security perspective, they would then decide whether or not to return the remaining trains.

The source said that the security forces feared the Muslim Brotherhood would use the trains to travel to Cairo or attack the trains or the commuters.

Meanwhile, the source also confirmed that stopping the trains for 45 consecutive days has resulted in losses exceeding 150 million Egyptian pounds.

The newspaper said that the train drivers are planning to apply for compensation for the time they have been out of work due to the closure of the train service.