Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has Sunday inaugurated the first phase of the country’s first light rail train (LRT) and its starting point, the Adly Mansour Interchange Station.
At the inauguration, Minister of Transportation Kamel El-Wazir said there are currently 12 stations in the initial phase of the LRT. This includes Adly Mansour, Badr City, the Culture and Arts City in the NAC, and New Obour.
President El-Sisi took the train from Adly Mansour Interchange Station to Badr City Station. Adly Mansour Interchange Station connects the New Administrative Capital (NAC) with the rest of the country’s cities and governorates.
Named after the country’s former interim president Adly Mansour (2013-2014), the station has a full-service transportation complex and a commercial investment zone on a total area of 15 feddans.
Upon the completion of the three phases of the LRT, the service will accommodate up to one million commuters daily through 19 stations covering a length of 103.3 kilometre across the nation.
Each LRT train carriage can accommodate up to 300 passengers, with a total capacity of 1,300 passengers, El-Wazir told El-Sisi.
Worthy of note is that the train tracks will be secured by barbed wire fencing in both directions.
The 1.1 million square metre central Adly Mansour station, the largest in the Middle East, includes seven transport modes. These are the Cairo-Suez Railway Line, Cairo Metro’s third line, the LRT, the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System, and the SuperJet buses that run along three lines nationwide.
El-wazir said the LRT was part of the country’s drive to upgrade its transportation system and encourage citizens to rely on environmentally efficient means of mass transportation.
El-Wazir said the LRT’s carriages offer a high level of railway security for commuters and feature Wi-Fi services and on-board displays.
The LRT is a sustainable means of green mass transportation since it runs on electricity instead of diesel. The 22 trains of the LRT also include seats allocated for people with special needs, stressing that all the LRT’s stations are configured to facilitate access and movement for people with disabilities.
Furthermore, the minister noted that each train carriage includes seven surveillance cameras, as well as a telephone that can be used in the event of an emergency.
In addition to being linked to various means of transportation in Adly Mansour Interchange Station, the LRT will also intersect with Egypt’s under construction monorail at the Arts and Culture Centre Station in the NAC, along with Egypt’s first high-speed electric railway at an interchange station on the Cairo-Sokhna Highway.
The LRT is being constructed by the Ministry of Transportation and a consortium of 20 Egyptian companies along with 20 Chinese companies for supplying trains and systems.
El-Wazir also clarified that a train will be departing from the Adly Mansour Interchange Station every three to five minutes. The duration of the trip from the main station to the NAC will take about 45 minutes.
In terms of ticket pricing, rides lasting three stops on the LRT will cost EGP 15, increasing by EGP 5 for every three-stop threshold passed thereafter, with rides lasting 12 stops — the total number of stations that have been finalised out of the 19 — costing EGP 35.
The minister noted that a unified ticket will be made for all means of transportation at Adly Mansour Interchange Station.