Cairo-Alexandria train stopped, all other rail lines have green light despite protests

Ahram Online, Sunday 30 Jun 2013

So far the Cairo-Alexandria trains are stopped due to what are expected to be massive protests, but all other rail and metro lines are running a railway official tells Ahram Online

metro work
File photo: Passengers are reflected in the window of an empty train during a strike by train drivers in Egypt, at the main train station in Cairo April 7, 2013 (Photo: Reuters)

Egypt’s railway and underground metro says their transportation services are working smoothly on the day nationwide massive protests were planned aiming to unseat President Mohamed Morsi.

"A total of 1100 journeys on our Sunday’s schedule are expected to help Egyptians so long as protesters do not block railways," an official at the Egyptian Railway Authority, who prefers to remain anonymous, tells Ahram online.

The source added that Cairo-Alexandria’s trains are currently stopped due to protests on railway in the coastal province.

The the metro's labour union Director Refaat Arfat confirmed that underground operations will continue until midnight.

"There are apparently 35 percent less passengers [today] than ordinary days, which reflects Egyptians’ worries over the protests," Arfat added.

Egypt is anticipating its biggest wave of protests since the January 25 Revolution, this time calling for Islamist President Morsi to step down and for early presidential elections.

To counter, however, Islamist forces are staging a sit-in at Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque in Nasr City (a densely populated Cairo suburb) that they started on Friday in support of Morsi. They held a similar rally last week, which numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

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