Egypt’s national railway said on Monday, 9 November, that trains were running again between Cairo and the High Dam in Aswan, one day after a collision in Giza Province killed seven people and injured 125.
Egyptian National Railways said crews had removed the damaged carriages and repaired the track in the Ayyat district. The agency apologized to passengers for delays, offered condolences to victims’ families and wished the injured a swift recovery.
While workers cleared the site, the railway rerouted services in Upper Egypt between Al-Wasta and Aswan and let travelers cancel tickets for refunds. The Transport Ministry sent buses for stranded passengers. Officials had not said how long the cleanup would take.
The crash happened when a Giza-to-Fayoum train, No. 134, struck the last carriage of a Cairo-to-Aswan train, No. 2010, between the Kafr Ammar and Al-Raqqa stations. Several carriages derailed.
The Public Prosecution opened an investigation and ordered a specialized technical committee to examine the site, the damaged carriages and the tracks. The panel will also consider whether operating procedures or safety requirements fell short.
The accident adds to a run of recent incidents. In September, two freight trains collided at Al-Balyada station in the same district, injuring a driver and his assistant. In May, a carriage partly detached from a Cairo-bound train leaving Aswan, leaving three people with minor injuries.
Official figures show some improvement. Egypt recorded 170 train accidents in 2025, down 22.7 percent from 220 in 2024, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). But the toll remains heavy. Train operations caused 39 deaths and 139 injuries, and people on or near the tracks accounted for hundreds more deaths, CAPMAS data show.
Ayyat was also the site of Egypt’s deadliest rail disaster, a 2002 fire that killed more than 360 people.
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