Egypt's Transport Minister sacks Egyptian Railway Authority head after Cairo-Aswan train accident (Photo: Ahram arabic gate)
Egypt's Transport Minister Hesham Arafat fired head of the Egyptian Railway Authority Sayed Salem on Sunday, MENA news reported.
The decision comes following an accident in which ten carriages of a Cairo-Aswan train were derailed early on Sunday.
The incident left six people with minor injuries.
Following the decision to fire Salem, Arafat appointed Ashraf Raslan as the new head of the Railway Authority.
The last major train incident took place in July, as 55 people were injured when a Cairo-Qena train was derailed due to a signalling error. Giza's prosecution released a statement reporting the detention of the driver, his assistant and five other railway employees, pending investigations.
Egypt's railway system is notorious for its poor safety record, generally blamed on lack of maintenance and poor management. Successive governments have failed to enforce basic safety measures on the network.
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi highlighted last year the need to upgrade the railway network to prevent deadly accidents, saying that the system needs EGP 180 billion (approx. $10 billion) to be modernised.
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