Egypt’s Transport Minister Hisham Arafat has announced that prices on railway tickets will increase with 20 to 25 percent on a number of lines, while prices on tickets of suburban railway lines are expected to see even larger price hikes in the coming period. As has been the case with Cairo’s metro system, the Egyptian government argues that ticket prices need to be increased in order for the state to be able to upgrade the rail network and to keep up with the costs of regular maintenance. “The pricing system is very poor,” Arafat said, referring to Egypt’s railway. “We will see a different railway system starting mid next year […] a qualitative improvement will be felt by March/April 2019,” he continued to remark. With this in mind, Egyptian Streets decided to review the current performance of Egypt’s railway and assess whether improvements are needed by taking several trips on one of the most frequently-traveled routes, namely, between Cairo and Alexandria. Tickets Although we’ve heard about the possibility of online booking, that option could not be found on the Egyptian Railways website, and there was no answer when trying to…
