Nevertheless, following the death of Muhammad Ali, his successor Abbas I concluded a contract in 1851 with the British engineer and entrepreneur Robert Stephenson (son of the celebrated inventor George Stephenson) for the construction of Egypt's first railway, built to a gauge of 1,435 mm. The opening section between Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast and Kafr el-Zayyat on the Rosetta branch of the Nile was opened in 1854. It became the first railway not only in Egypt, but in the entire Ottoman Empire, as well as in Africa and the Middle East.
Robert Stephenson (1803–1859), as depicted in a portrait by John Lucas (National Portrait Gallery, London). Source: Wikimedia Commons
That same year Abbas I died and was succeeded by Said Pasha, during whose reign the section between Kafr el-Zayyat and Cairo was completed in 1856, and subsequently extended from Cairo to Suez in 1858. This marked the completion of the first modern transport corridor between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. Ferdinand de Lesseps did not complete the Suez Canal until 1869.
At Kafr el-Zayyat, the line between Alexandria and Cairo initially crossed the Nile by means of a railway ferry — a barge towed by a tugboat. On 15 May 1858, however, a disaster occurred: a special train carrying Said Pasha's heir presumptive, Ahmad Rifaat Pasha, plunged from the barge into the river, and the prince drowned.
Robert Stephenson consequently replaced the railway ferry with a swing (rotating) bridge nearly 500 meters in length. By the end of Said Pasha's reign, branch lines had been built from Benha on the Damietta branch of the Nile to Zagazig in 1860 and to Mit Bera in 1861, as well as from Tanta to Talha, situated further downstream along the Damietta branch of the Nile, in 1863.
Steam railcar by the company "Robert Stephenson and Company" of Newcastle, supplied to the ruler of Egypt, 1859.
The following year, the branch heading south from Tanta reached Shibin el-Kom. The network began expanding southward along the western bank of the Nile with the opening of the line between Embaba (a left-bank district of Cairo) and El-Minya in 1867. In 1868, a short branch to El-Fayyum was built, along with a line between Zagazig and Suez via Nifisha. The following year, the line to Talha was extended to Damietta (now Dumyat) on the Mediterranean coast, and a branch to Salhia and Samaanawas also opened.
In 1872, an extensive branch line was opened between Embaba and a junction station to the west of Kafr el-Zayyat, connecting Embaba to the national network. A railway bridge across the Nile at Cairo was not built until 1891.
From El-Minya, the line was extended southward more slowly, reaching Mallawi in 1870 and Asyut in 1874. In 1872, a short southward branch connected Cairo to Tura, and by 1875 it had been extended to Helwan. In the Nile Delta that same year, a branch to Kafr el-Sheikhwas built, and in 1876 a line was constructed along the Mediterranean coast connecting the seaports of Alexandria and Rosetta (now Rashid).
Locomotive No. 354 by "Neilson and Company" of Glasgow, 1860–1880. (Source: humus.livejournal.com)
By 1877, Egypt had a network of main railway lines reaching its greatest density in the Nile Delta. The ambitious transport development and numerous other progressive initiatives of Muhammad Ali's grandson, the pro-European Ismail Pasha (Pasha of Egypt from 1863 to 1867, and Khedive of Egypt and Sudan from 1867 to 1879), had, however, led the country into considerable sovereign debt. The decisive blow came from the collapse of world cotton prices — Egypt's principal export commodity at the time.
Moreover, in the first 25 years of its operation, Egypt's national railway had not submitted a single annual report. In 1877, an Administrative Board was established to bring order to the railway administration, comprising not only Egyptians but also British and French creditors of the construction. The Board published its first report in 1879. That same year, acting under pressure from the British government, the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II deposed Ismail Pasha "for extravagance" and forced the Khedive to hand power to his son and leave Egypt. In 1882, British troops invaded and occupied Egypt under the pretext of suppressing the rebels of the renegade Colonel Ahmad UrabiPasha, who had seized power in the country.
Sailors from the British warship HMS Hecla manning a naval gun mounted on a railway flatcar, Egypt, 1882. (Source: collection.nam.ac.uk)
In 1883, Frederick Harvey Trevithick (1852–1931), grandson of the inventor of the first steam locomotive, Richard Trevithick, was appointed Chief Engineer of the Egyptian Railways Administration (ERA). Upon taking up his post, F.H. Trevithick found a fleet of 246 locomotives of every conceivable design from a wide variety of British, French, and American manufacturers. The lack of standardization complicated both locomotive maintenance and railway operations as a whole.
Trevithick succeeded in resolving this problem. Some 85 locomotives were deemed suitable for modernization, and from 1889 the remainder were progressively replaced by new ones: 0-6-0 types for freight service, 2-4-0 types for mixed traffic, 0-6-0 tank engines for shunting, and 2-2-2 types for passenger express workings. The Chief Engineer also ensured that these four classes shared as many common components as possible, which further simplified maintenance and reduced costs.
By 1888, the ERA had emerged from stagnation and was able to resume the expansion of the railway network. In 1890, a second line was opened between Cairo and Tura. On 15 May 1892, the Embaba Bridge across the Nile was commissioned, connecting Cairo with the line running southward along the western bank of the river. The bridge was designed by Gustave Eiffel. It was reconstructed for double-track operation between 1912 and 1924 by Belgian engineers, and remains to this day the only railway bridge across the Nile in Cairo. In 1892, Cairo's main railway station, Misr, was rebuilt.
Misr Railway Station in Cairo, 1920. (Source: pinterest.com)
The southward line was extended further up the Nile from Asyut to Girga in 1892, Nag Hammadi in 1896, Qena in 1897, and Luxor and Aswan in 1898. The section between Luxor and Aswan was laid to a gauge of 1,067 mm (the "Cape gauge"). This was part of the grand vision of the British-South African politician and businessman Cecil Rhodes (1853–1902) to build an African transcontinental railway "from Cairo to the Cape of Good Hope."
With the completion of the Luxor–Aswan section that same year, construction began on the first Aswan Dam (now known as the "low" or "old" Aswan Dam) and on the dam at Asyut. These were key elements of the government's 1890 plan to modernize and expand Egypt's existing irrigated agriculture in order to develop the country's export potential and service its debts to European creditors.
In the north of the country, in 1891, a railway branch was opened between Damanhur and Desouk. That same year, the line to Shibin el-Kom was extended southward to Menuf, reaching Ashmun in 1896. By that time, a branch running through the Nile Delta from the junction on the Talha – Damietta line had reached Biyala. In 1898 it reached Kafr el-Sheikh, forming a more direct route between Damietta and Alexandria.
A significant milestone was the completion in 1904 of a railway line along the western bank of the Suez Canal, linking Nifisha with Ismailia, El-Qantara, and Port Said. Network expansion slowed thereafter, though in 1911 two short connecting lines were built north of Cairo, and in 1914 a connection was made between Zagazig and Zifta.
In 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I, the British declared Egypt's official transition from the Ottoman Empire to a British protectorate. Construction began on a standard-gauge military railway from El-Qantara on the Suez Canal across the Sinai Peninsula, which reached Romaniby May 1916, El-Arish in January 1917, and the Palestinian town of Rafah in Gaza in March 1917. On 28 February 1922, the British recognized Egyptian independence. A new era began for the national railways. Among other developments, the urgency of the African transcontinental main line diminished, and by 1926 the Luxor–Aswan section was regauged to standard gauge.
Presentation of Pullman cars at the ceremony marking the opening of 1,435 mm gauge passenger service between Luxor and Aswan in 1926. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
From 1920, passenger rail services were established between Egypt and British Mandate Palestine. A daily express ran between El-Qantara and Haifa, with dining and sleeping cars. A bridge across the Suez Canal was not built until 1942, so at El-Qantara freight and passengers were transported across the canal by ferry. The line acquired considerable strategic importance during World War II, when from 1940 a through route to Turkey became available via Beirut and Aleppo.
In the interwar period, the most significant railway project completed in Egypt was the construction of the Western Desert Railway (WDR) between Alexandria and Mersa Matruh, approximately 320 km in length, which entered service in April 1936.
During World War II, in June 1941, a decision was made to extend the WDR westward into Libya, where British forces were engaged against German-Italian troops. By September, the line — under construction by New Zealand Expeditionary Forces — had reached Mahalfa station, and by December it arrived at Misheifa station, where a large locomotive depot was built. By March 1942, the line had crossed the border and entered Italian Libya at Capuzzo. Due to the intensity of the fighting, as the line repeatedly changed hands, the final section to Tobruk was not commissioned until 1 December 1942. Notably, from the summer of 1942, diesel traction was actively used on the WDR and its extension (the WDER) by both sides in the conflict.
A British hospital train on the WDR, headed by a Whitcomb 65DE14 diesel locomotive of American manufacture. (Source: o5m6.de)
After the end of World War II, in 1946, the section from El-Sallum to Tobruk was dismantled, and Egypt lost its short-lived rail connection with Libya. The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 severed Egypt's connection to the Middle Eastern rail network. Egypt's railways thus became isolated once again — and have remained so to this day.
In the postwar period, the procurement of steam locomotives ceased and Egypt's railways began transitioning to diesel traction, a process that intensified following the July Revolution of 1952 and the proclamation of the republic. Between 1953 and 1962, 140 diesel locomotives of Hungarian (Ganz-MÁVAG) and West German (Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik) manufacture were delivered to the country (all of which have since been retired). These were followed by locomotives from the American company General Motors (no fewer than 190 units) and the West German concern Henschel (280 units). The latter still form the backbone of the country's locomotive fleet. The Helwan Steelworks' private sidings were also served by 23 Soviet-built TE114E diesel locomotives, produced between 1974 and 1976.
An iron ore train hauled by two TE114E diesel locomotives built at the Voroshilovgrad (now Luhansk) works. (Source: VK, "Railway Photographer's Blog")
Since 1980, public railway infrastructure has been the property of Egyptian National Railways (ENR), a state body reporting to the Ministry of Transport. While some lines were dismantled or mothballed (such as the WDER section from Mersa Matruh to El-Sallum), new railway construction also took place during this period.
The largest project completed in the final decades of the 20th century was the construction of the El-Kharga – Safaga main line, approximately 680 km in length, intended for the transportation of phosphates. Its first phase — the Qena–Safagaline — was built between 1986 and 1988, followed by the second phase — the El-Kharga–Qena line — between 1994 and 1996. The railway operated successfully until 2009, when it fell victim to armed criminal gangs that, in 2009 and 2011, dismantled virtually the entire line for scrap (leaving only around 60 km of track along the Red Sea coast). Only after the current President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, came to power in 2014 did an investigation into this unprecedented incident begin, along with discussions on restoring the line.
Also from 2014, measures have been underway to improve operational safety by replacing outdated signaling and interlocking systems (a token block system and telephone communication, which at that time served 85% of the total network length) with modern equipment (microprocessor-based automatic block signaling). In total, 1,057 km of the 5,153 km network are planned for upgrading. Project participants include Siemens (Germany) and Thales (France).
In the 21st century, ENR has been actively renewing its rolling stock, procuring predominantly American diesel locomotives from General Electric, General Motors, and Caterpillar. Electrification has made little headway in Egypt: only 63 km of the network have been electrified (direct current, 1,500 V), namely the suburban lines Cairo–Helwan and Cairo–Heliopolis, which are administratively part of the Cairo Metro.
Unlike traction rolling stock — which in Egypt is entirely imported — passenger cars are built and maintained by the local company SEMAF. However, its capacity is insufficient to meet the growing needs of ENR. Accordingly, in 2018 the Russian-Hungarian consortium "Transmashholding Hungary Kft" concluded a contract with ENR for the supply of seated passenger cars worth more than one billion euros. In 2021, the Russian party completed its share of deliveries, after which production has been carried out by the Hungarian side using technology from the Tver Carriage Works. In 2022, the contract was expanded by a further 50 cars (to a total of 1,350 units).
A Cairo–Luxor train composed of Russian-built cars at Luxor station. (Source: seat61.com)
On 12 March 2018, Egyptian Transport Minister Hisham Arafat announced plans to introduce high-speed rail services in the country. In 2023, construction began on the first section of the railway, measuring 330 km. The double-track electrified line will run from Ain Sokhna on the Gulf of Suez through 6th of October City, part of Greater Cairo, to New Borg El Arab, located 52 km southwest of Alexandria. The line is designed for mixed freightand passenger operation, with a maximum speed of 230 km/h for Siemens Velaro passenger trains and 120 km/h for freight trains. An extension to Mersa Matruhis also planned. This line is part of a larger project to develop a network of three high-speed railway lines with a combined length of 2,000 km.
Prospective transport projects in Egypt
— Construction of a railway line on the Al-Rubiki – Al-Tbeen section, 60 km in length. Investment: USD 180 million.
— Construction of the high-speed railway line Ain Sokhna–Alexandria–Mersa Matruh, 700 km in length.
— Construction of the high-speed railway line Luxor–Hurghada–Safaga, 300 km in length.
— Construction of the high-speed railway line 6th of October City–Aswan, 800 km in length.
A joint project of 1520International and the the Institute for Economics and Transport Development (IETD)
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