Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi with Minister of Transport Kamel El-Wazir a tour in Bashteel Railway Station as part of it's inauguration ceremony on Saturday 12 October, 2024. Photo courtesy of Egyptian Presidential spokesman Facebook page.
The Bashteel Railway Station, built in a central location in northern Giza to serve as the main gateway to Upper Egypt, is four times larger than the historic Misr Railway Station (Ramses Station) in central Cairo.
Ramses Railway Station, built in 1854 when Egypt’s population was 4 million, currently serves around 1.1 million passengers daily, according to Minister of Transport Kamel El-Wazir.
The new state-of-the-art station is expected to relieve pressure from Ramses Station, which connects railways in the country in all four directions, and ease traffic congestion in Ramses Square in the heart of the capital.
Bashteel Railway Station is located at the meeting point of Mit Uqba, Ard Liwaa, and Imbaba in Giza.
The station was built in a Pharaonic architectural style with a 40-metre-high glass pyramid and four obelisks placed at the station's entrance.
It comprises 12 railway platforms, tractor and carriage workshops, and a storage hub.
The station will also hold a garage, a commercial mall, a four-star hotel, and 28 towers for commercial, administrative and residential use.
It links various modes of transportation, including the Cairo Metro’s third line, the Monorail, and the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.
The station's passenger capacity is 250,000 per day with 28 ticket windows.
The main building consists of a basement, a garage, a ground floor, and two other floors. The first and second floors include shops and investment areas.
The building includes four platforms to serve Upper Egypt passengers with six lines, including two lines for Aswan and Alexandria, two manoeuvring lines, and two lines for trains ending at the station and coming from Upper Egypt.
The station includes a giant smart interchange station, passenger guidance screens, electronic ticket gates, TVM machines, and surveillance cameras.
Bashteel station is air-conditioned, offers Wi-Fi service, and has a modern fire and alarm system.
The cost of the project is EGP 4.7 billion.
President El-Sisi also inaugurated other transportation projects, including the third phase of the third line of the Cairo Metro in Giza and the Al-Fardan-Bir Al-Abd railway line in North Sinai.
During the opening ceremony, Minister El-Wazir reviewed the upgrades made in the railway sector countrywide, asserting that such steps were necessary to increase passenger and freight capacity.
Freight transport capacity has also expanded from 4.5 million tons in 2014 to eight million tons annually in 2024.
The government aims to further increase capacity to 13 million tons annually by 2030, he added.
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