Cairo metro fares to be increased starting Monday

Ahram Online , Sunday 16 Aug 2020

The operational costs of the metro are EGP 8 billion while revenues are EGP 4 billion.

metro
Passengers waiting to take a train in Cairo's metro (Reuters)
 

Egyptian Transportation Minister Kamel El-Wazir announced on Sunday that fares for the first and second lines of the Cairo Metro would increase on Monday.
 
“A ticket for a journey of between one and nine stops will cost EGP 5 instead of EGP 3, a ticket for 9 to 15 stops will cost EGP 7 instead of EGP 5, and a ticket for 17 to 40 stops will cost EGP 10 instead of EGP 7,” El-Wazir told Ala Masoolati television show on Sada El-Balad channel.
 
Fares for the third line of the metro had been increased by similar amounts in June 2019.
 
“The metro lines consume electricity and have employees’ salaries to pay. Revenues can’t cover their operational costs,” he said, adding that first and second metro lines need to be renovated, like the third line.
 
The operational costs of the metro are EGP 8 billion while revenues are EGP 4 billion, according to El-Wazir.
 
“There are 5 million workers, engineers and technicians working in the metro, aside from the indirect workers who could double this number,” he added.
 
The minister said that a new ten-year deal had been signed with an advertising company for EGP 110 million a year.
 
Earlier on Sunday, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi inaugurated the new Adly Mansour metro station, part of a series of developments of the metro’s fourth line.
 
During the event, El-Sisi instructed El-Wazir to set the appropriate prices for railway and metro services to ensure the continued efficient operation of the services’ facilities.
 
In May 2018, Egypt raised metro fares from a flat rate of EGP 2 per ticket to EGP 3-7 per ticket depending on distance covered, citing the need to raise funds for infrastructure development.
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