The inter-governorate railway services continue to have the reputation for unreliability even after 18 people were killed and 37 others injured when a passenger train drove full-speed into the back of another late last month, southwest of Cairo.These trains
popularly known as the poor people's trains, are always overcrowded, delayed and often out of service, commuters complain."The overall train services are declining. The cars of a Cairo-Fayyoum train, for example, have no electricity, or toilets. They are not fit for humans," Mohamed Ahmed Abdul Haleem, a regular commuter, said at Cairo's main railway station in Ramses Square."A three-hour delay for the daily Cairo-Fayyoum Trains Nos 148 and 162, which usually make unscheduled stops, is normal," Abdul Haleem added.Ahmed Ismail, another angry passenger, says that riding the poor people's trains is a daily risk. “The rail services on trains connecting Cairo to Fayyoum, Zagazique City in the Nile Delta or Port Said have been poor for a long time compared with long-distance operations elsewhere in Egypt,” Ismail, a student, said.He added that the Cairo-Fayyoum trains were either late or cancelled without a notice."Even when the officials bring a train from Ramses Station depot, it becomes so overcrowded that people can't even get on it," Ismail groused.Hamdi Abdul Sadeq said that he stood for most of the journey on the last three occasions he had used the train from Cairo to Fayyoum, some 108km south of the capital."After the latest accident I expected that the Government will improve the service. But it has done nothing," Abdul Sadeq said, adding that it was unacceptable for passengers regularly to stand during train rides. In the meantime, a station official urged passengers to take the bus or a car 'because the trains to Fayyoum are impractical'."The trains are old, slow and can not carry all these people," the official said. Some disappointed passengers took the official's advice and left the station to take collective taxis, or mini-buses to Fayyoum.Meanwhile, other travellers complain trains are inconvenient for trips to Zagazique."The seats are uncomfortable in these trains, which are dimly lit especially during the night journeys," says Bassiouni Ibrahim, a farmer.Khalid Shafiq, an engineering student, said that poor passengers usually faced a chaotic journey each day because of delays on the Cairo-Zagazique line."Passengers of the poor people's trains do not enjoy safety or rights such as compensation if their train is cancelled or delayed," Shafiq said.Daily travellers going to Sharqia must leap onto the slow-moving train that is always crammed, he said, describing his daily train journey as a triangle of pain.It is a waste of time to take these trains , which the passengers dismiss as the rickety turtle carrying farmers."The Cairo-Zagazique train is uncomfortable as the packed passengers are either sitting on the floor, or standing as tightly as fish in a sardines can," says worker Mohie Amin, a daily commuter.He adds the train gets him to work from Zagazique, some 70km north of Cairo, in about two hours instead of one."It's the worst way to go," he says.
