Egypt to invest $1.5 billion in rail network, Egyptian transport slammed by train and road crashes
Agence France-Presse CAIRO: Eleven Egyptians died Wednesday when their minibus, part of a wedding convoy, overturned near the southern city of Aswan, police said. Eleven Egyptians, including three children and two women, were killed in the accident which occurred in Kom-Ombo, some 800 km south of the capital, police said. Many Egyptians celebrate weddings by hiring cars and motorbikes to tear around the streets in often ragged convoys, blaring horns and disrupting traffic.
Egypt will earmark LE 8.5 billion pounds to modernize its railway network, the transport minister said Wednesday. Mohammed Mansour, speaking to the parliamentary committee on transport and communication, said the decision will be officially adopted on Thursday. He added that a government probe into Monday s accident, in which a commuter train plowed into the back of a stationary one north of Cairo, would also be released on Thursday. According to the minister, half of the locomotives in service are in need of modernization, with a quarter of the total being at least 30 years old. The money will be spent on developing level crossings, stations and locomotives, as well as second- and third-class wagons and more training for personnel, Mansour said. Of the total, LE 5 billion will come from revenues generated by the award in July of a third mobile telephony license for $2.9 billion. The balance is to be raised through borrowing.
Egyptian transport officials scrambled Tuesday to deal with two disasters, as the national rail chief was sacked following a train crash that killed 58 and a bus accident left another 11 dead. Egyptian media and opposition politicians lashed out at the government amid the latest tragedies. Transport Minister Mohammed Mansour announced that national rail chief Hanafy Abdel Qawi had been fired and his deputy Eid Mahran suspended pending a probe into Monday s catastrophe, a security source told AFP. At least 58 people were killed and 144 injured when a passenger train slammed into the back of another using the same track in the town of Qaliub, just north of Cairo, derailing carriages and setting one train ablaze. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif told reporters during a hospital visit to see some of the injured that an inquiry had been launched and results would be known within 48 hours. Those responsible will be held truly accountable, he said. On Tuesday, at least 11 people were killed when a bus carrying mostly Israeli tourists flipped over near the northern Sinai resort of Nuweiba, security and hospital sources said. Hospital sources on the peninsula, home to resorts that are popular with such tourists, said 39 others were injured. Most of the victims were believed to be Arab Israelis, the sources said. Egyptian security sources said the accident occurred on a winding mountain road near the hamlet of Saada, about 45 km north of Nuweiba, as the bus was heading to Taba, on the border with Israel. The sources said the bus was speeding but did not rule out a technical fault as the cause of the accident. In Cairo, Mansour said a technical committee would be formed to study the causes of the (rail) crash and to prevent such accidents in the future, the official MENA agency reported. The tragedies were just the latest in a series of Egyptian transport disasters, most of which have been blamed on negligence and poor maintenance. The country s deadliest rail disaster occurred in February 2002, when a passenger using a stove set fire to a train, killing at least 361. The lack of emergency exits resulted in most passengers being trapped inside the burning carriages. On February 3, a ferry sank in the middle of the Red Sea, killing around 1,000 people in one of the worst maritime tragedies in recent years. Ship owner Mamduh Ismail, a government-appointed member of the upper house and the ruling National Democratic Party of President Hosni Mubarak, subsequently fled the country. He was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in March, his assets were frozen a month later and he was made to pay compensation to the families of victims. The fact that Ismail, who is believed to have close ties with the presidency, was allowed to flee the country fueled accusations that the state was involved at the highest level. Monday s train crash further inflamed the press and public opinion. Egypt s largest opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, added its voice to the chorus of criticism. As usual, the authorities are looking for a scapegoat, without seeking to reform the administrative apparatus, which is plunged in corruption and sloppiness, a Brotherhood statement said. Since last February there have been three major train crashes in Egypt, where transport has a reputation of being dangerous. About 6,000 people die in road accidents each year. A report by the transport ministry said they were the second-highest cause of death in the country.
