Arafat reveals reasons of railways' losses

Minister of Transport Dr. Hisham Arafat revealed that the railway losses caused by the lack of infrastructure development for many years, where the journey that took 12 hours from Cairo to Aswan, became taking 16 or 17 hours because the deterioration of infrastructure.
 
"I am not thinking about the gain and loss of the railways as much as I am concerned with the development of infrastructure, which has been going on for years without development," the minister stated.
 
Arafat added that the losses represent the difference between expenses and revenues, where this deficit represents the annual losses. "The revenues we earn from the long-distance sector EGP 1.4 billion, while we earn from the short distances sector about EGP 200 million and the transport sector EGP 350 million, with total revenue of about EGP 1.95 billion," he added.

Arafat said the deficit between expenditure and revenue on the railway would be halted by infrastructure development, adding that development would save on the cost of the journy. Arafat pointed out that the losses could end by the end of 2022, stressing that the renewal of the railway alone needs 4.5 billion pounds.
 
According to the ministry's report, the railway lands amount to 191 million square meters. All the reports of the Central Auditing Organization (CAO) since 2011 until the end of the year recorded the non-exploitation of these lands, and the violations exceed 8 million square meters. The Minister explained that the land can be exploited ranging from 6 and 7 million square meters.

The Minister of Transport revealed that there is no thought of raising the prices of train tickets. The minister said that the plan to develop the first and second lines of the metro needs more than 30 billion pounds, adding that there are 6 billion pounds of loans provided by Korea, and spent on the purchase of 20 new train.

"We need 32 other trains for the first line costing up to 12.5 billion pounds, and 6 trains for the second line costing up to 3 billion pounds, and we are working with Dr. Sahar Nasr, the Minister of International Cooperation, to obtain loans to provide the required funding for these trains," the minister added.

"The Xray and the CCTV are only in the main railway stations such as Egypt, Giza and Sidi Gaber stations," the minister said, indicating that other stations are open and easy to penetrate due to the unability to install surveillance cameras on the 900 km length of the railway bar from Cairo and Aswan.

The minister explained that the timetable for the implementation of the plan for the development of the first and second lines of the metro actually began in the first line. He added that there is a French consultant who began his work in the preparation and identification of the needs of the first line accurately and develop designs for the development plan.