Translated to Arabic as the (metal
road)
In 1833, Muhammad Ali Pasha considered building a railway between Suez and Cairo to improve transit between Europe and India. Muhammad Ali had proceeded to buy the rail when the French who had an interest in building a canal instead, pressured him to abandon the rail project.
TRACKS MESURMENTS |
The first section, between
Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast and Kafr el-Zayyat on the Rosetta branch
of the Nile was opened in 1854. This was the first railway in the Ottoman
Empire as well as in Africa and the Middle East. This same year Abbas died and
was succeeded by Sa'id Pasha, in whose reign the section between Kafr el-Zayyat
and Cairo was completed by the year 1856 followed by an extension from Cairo to
Suez in 1858. This completed the first modern transport link between the
Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, 11 years before Ferdinand de Lesseps
completed the Suez Canal waterway in 1869.
At Kafr el-Zayyat the line between
Cairo and Alexandria originally crossed the Nile with an 80 feet (24 m) car
float. However, on 15 May 1858 a special train conveying Sa'id's heir
presumptive Ahmad Rifaat Pasha fell off the float into the river and the prince
was drowned.
EARLY MAP OF TRAIN STATIONS IN THE DELTA |
Stephenson then replaced the car
float with a swing bridge nearly 500 metres (1,600 ft) long. By the end of Sa'id's
reign branches had been completed from Banha to Zagazig on the Damietta branch
of the Nile in 1860, to Mit Bera in 1861 and from Tanta to Talkha further down
the Damietta Nile in 1863.
Sa'id's successor Isma'il Pasha
strove to modernize Egypt and added momentum to railway development. In 1865 a
new branch reached Desouk on the Rosetta Nile and a second route between Cairo
and Talkha was opened, giving a more direct link between Cairo and Zagazig. The
following year a branch southwards from Tanta reached Shibin El Kom. The
network started to push southwards along the west side of the Nile with the
opening of the line between Imbaba near Cairo and Minya in the south in 1867. A short branch
to Faiyum was added in 1868. A line between Zagazig and Suez via Nifisha was completed
in the same year. The following year the line to Talkha was extended to
Damietta on the Mediterranean coast and a branch opened to Salhiya and
Sama'ana.
TRAIN TO ALEXANDRIA EARLY 1890'S |
ROYAL TRAIN |
By 1877, Egypt had a network of
key main lines and the Nile Delta had quite a network, but with this and other
development investments, Isma'il had gotten the country deeply into debt.
EARLY EGYPT TRAINS |
In 1882, the British essentially invaded and occupied Egypt since that time until 1956.
With these developments, the
Egyptian Railway Administration's rail network stagnated until 1888, but it
also put its management in much better order. In 1883 the ERA appointed
Frederick Harvey Trevithick, as Chief Mechanical Engineer. Trevithick found a
heterogeneous fleet of up to 246 steam locomotives of many different designs
from very different builders in England, Scotland, France and the USA. This
lack of standardization of locomotives or components complicated both
locomotive maintenance and general railway operation.
ALEXANDRIA RAILWAY STATION |
TRAIN TO ASSIUT |
EGYPT RAILWAYS MAP |
In 1891, a link line was opened
between Damanhur and Desouk. The line to Shibin El Kom was extended south to
Minuf in the same year and reached Ashum in 1896. By then a line across the Nile
Delta from a junction north of Talkha on the line to Damietta had reached
Biyala. By 1898 this reached Kafr el-Sheikh, completing a more direct route
between Damietta and Alexandria. An important extension along the west bank of
the Suez Canal linking Nifisha with Ismaïlia, Al Qantarah West and Port Said
was completed in 1904. Thereafter network expansion was slower but two short
link lines north of Cairo were completed in 1911 followed by a link between
Zagazig and Zifta in 1914.
Sinai
PALESTINE RAILWAY SYSTEM FROM CAIRO TO BEIRUT AND HIGAZ |
The first El Ferdan Railway Bridge
over the Suez Canal was completed in April 1918 for the Palestine Military
Railway. It was considered a hindrance to shipping so after the First World War
it was removed. During the Second World War a steel swing bridge was built in 1942
but this was damaged by a steamship and removed in 1947. A double swing bridge
was completed in 1954 but the 1956 Israeli invasion of Sinai severed rail
traffic across the canal for a third time. A replacement bridge was completed
in 1963 but destroyed in the Six-Day War in 1967. A new double swing bridge was
completed in 2001 and is the largest swing bridge in the World. However, the
construction of the New Suez Canal has since disconnected the Sinai from the
rest of Egypt’s rail network again. Instead of the bridge, two rail tunnels are
planned under the canal, one near Ismailia and one in Port Said.
TRAIN TICKET FROM EL KANTARA EGYPT TO TEL AVIV PALESTINE |
Many Syro-Lebaneese living in Egypt would board the train from Cairo and travel to Haifa then to Lebanon for the summer vacations departing from the Cairo
rail station for a 24 hours long ride.
EL-FERDAN THE LONGEST DOUBLE SWING BRIDGE IN THE WOLD CROSSING THE SUEZ CANAL |
Before being forced to withdraw from Sinai in March 1957, Israel systematically destroyed infrastructure including the railway. By 1963 the railway in Sinai was reconnected to the rest of Egypt but remained disconnected from Israel.
TRAIN STATION IN EGYPT |
After numerous years' of service
on Israel Railways the Egyptian 30-ton crane, 1893 Belgian 6-wheel coach and
one of the EMD G16 diesels are all preserved in the Israel Railway Museum in
Haifa Museum.
OLD LOCOMOTIVE IN MUSEUM |
(The X-X-X is the design standard called
the Whyte notation for classifying steam
locomotives by wheel
arrangement)
2-4-2 no. 30, built by Robert
Stephenson and Company in 1862
A graphic of the Whyte notation, with the wheel-arrangement shown being a 4-8-4. (Four leading wheels, eight drive wheels, and four trailing wheels. |
0-6-0 no. 986, built by Robert
Stephenson and Company in 1861
4-4-2 no. 194, built by the North
British Locomotive Company in 1905 Operations
4-4-0 locomotive number 694: one
of a class of 15 built by the North British Locomotive Company in Scotland for
Egyptian State Railways in 1905-06
In 2005 ENR operated 5,063
kilometres of standard gauge 1,435 mm track. Most of
the rail system is focused on the Nile delta with lines essentially fanning out
from Cairo. In addition, there is a line to the west along the coast that
eventually could link to Libya as it did during World War II. From Cairo goes a
major line south along the east bank of the Nile to Aswan in Upper
Egypt.
CAIRO RAILWAY MUSEUM |
Rail service is a critical part of the transportation infrastructure of Egypt but of limited service for transit. 63 kilometres of the network was electrified, namely commuter lines between Cairo-Helwan and Cairo-Heliopolis. In recent years the lines have been replaced by a new metro system and the network extended by many kilometres .
ENR buys locomotives and rail
abroad but passenger coaches are built and refurbished in Egypt by the Société
Générale Egyptienne de Matériel de Chemins de Fer (SEMAF).
Cargo volume transported by ENR is
about 12 million tons annually.
On January 16, 2015 Egyptian
National Railways signed a €100 million contract with Alstom to supply signaling
equipment for the 240 km Beni Suef-Asyut line and maintain services for five
years. Alstom will also provide smartlock electronic interlocking system to
replace the existing electromechanical system, which in turn will increase the
number of trains that operate on the route by more than 80%.
Passenger trains
Imbaba Train Bridge linking Cairo with Aswan Bridge build by Mr. Gustave Eiffel |
Sleeper trains
The Alexandria–Cairo–Luxor–Aswan
route is served daily in both directions by air-conditioned sleeper trains of
Abela Egypt. This service is especially attractive to tourists who can spend
the night on the train as it covers the stretch between Cairo and Luxor. A
luxury express train also links Cairo with Marsa Matruh towards the Libyan
border.