A new batch of rail carriages arrived in Egypt’s Alexandria on Friday as part of a deal with the Russian-Hungarian consortium Transmashholding to import 1,300 rail carriages to the country in a 2018 mega deal, the largest in the history of the country.
According to an official statement, Transportation Minister Kamel El-Wazir said 22 aerodynamically ventilated third-class carriages arrived at the port of Alexandria, bringing the total number of carriages that have arrived to date to 208.
More batches would be delivered on a monthly basis in accordance to the timeline set under the deal, he added.
The agreement between the Russian company and the Egyptian National Railways (ENR), is worth more than 1 billion euros and is the largest in the history of the Egyptian railway sector.
The deal comprises 500 aerodynamically ventilated third-class coaches as well as 800 air-conditioned ones - 500 of which are third-class air-conditioned carriages, which is a new service offered to passengers for the first time in Egypt.
The 800 air-conditioned coaches also include 180 luxury second-class coaches, 90 luxury first-class ones, and 30 air-conditioned cafeterias.
The new coaches will contribute to raising the efficiency of daily operations and the regularity of operating schedules, as well as achieving a huge qualitative shift in the level of services provided for passengers.
Egypt’s railway network is among the world’s oldest, with 9,570km of tracks running across the country.
It transports 500 million passengers annually and an average of 1.4 million passengers each day, according to the ENR.
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