The Transport Ministry announced it has begun construction work on the second electric express train line, extending from 6 October City to Aswan, Upper Egypt.
The Ministry of Transport said that construction of the railway line began following completion of survey work on the area from Hada’eq October to Dairout on the second line of the express electric train.
The Transport Ministry confirmed that it inspected the connection point with the first line of the electric express train Ain Sokhna-Matrouh in Hada’eq October, which will be an interchange station between the two lines, as the passage of trains of the first line in this station will be shallow and the second line upper.
The train tracks will intercept with roads, it added, including the Central and Middle Ring roads, Western Upper, Bani Mazar, al-Bweity and Dayrout and Farafra roads.
The locations of ten stations were inspected out of a total of 30 stations that make up the project’s stations: these include two express train stations (Bani Suef / Fayoum and Minya), and eight regional train stations (al-Ayat – al-Fashn – al-Adwa – Bani Mazar – Samalout – Minya – Abu Qurqas – Mallawi – Dayrout).
The Ministry of Transport demanded that the route be within the precincts of the western road, and that the Fayoum/Bani Suef station have entrances from both sides to serve the governorates of Beni Suef and Fayoum.
It also added that the location of the stations be close to roads, residential places and areas of intersections with the Nile axis to facilitate residents of Upper Egypt.
The Ministry of Transport stated that the design speed of the network is 250 km/h, the operational speed of express electric trains is 230 km /h, regional electric train 160 km /h, and freight train 120 km /h.
The planned number of express electric trains on this line is scheduled to reach 20 trains, in addition to 48 planned regional electric trains and 20 freight trains.
The goal of diversifying train units is to provide transportation that suits all income classes, the ministry explained.
The coming period will witness the signing of a contract for the second and third lines with Siemens company, as part of the Ministry of Transport’s plan to establish an express electric train network consisting of three main lines at a total length of about 2,000 km, including about 1,400 km to serve Upper Egypt, in parallel with the ongoing development of the existing railway network – currently totaling 10,000 km long.
The environmentally friendly electric rapid train system will represent a huge qualitative leap in sustainable green transportation in Egypt, and will cover all parts of the country.
Besides being development arteries serving new and existing urban and industrial areas, it will contribute to reducing and shortening the travel time between governorates for more than half the time that the citizen currently takes, whether through the old train network or through the current roads linking the governorates, in addition to preserving the environment, the ministry announced.
