People from the village of Ayat executed a two-pronged demonstration on Saturday demanding that a new rail crossing be built.
Protestors prevented trains from running on the line connecting Cairo and the Aswan dam on Saturday morning as people gathered on the line between the stations of Ayat and Kafr Ammar, according to state news agency MENA.
Another set of protestors, also from Ayat gathered in Ramses station in Cairo. They were chanting “we will not leave,” and held signs calling for the crossing to be built.
Hussein Zakaria, chairman of the National Authority for Railways told MENA that the demonstrations took place to apply pressure on the governor of Giza, Aly Abdul Rahman.
Zakaria said that the proposed crossing would be illegal if it was built because there is already a rail crossing five km from the proposed site, reported MENA.
Concerns over safety on Egyptian railways have increased following a number of incidents, including a collision between a train and a school bus in Assiut, which claimed the lives of over 50 children in November.
The most recent incident occurred towards the end of December when a train collided with a microbus between Kafr Al-Sheikh and Tanta. Six people were hospitalised as a result of the incident.
