François Davenne, UIC Director General, visited Cairo on 22-23 January 2023 to meet with Kamel al-Wazir, Egyptian Minister of Transport, and Mohamed Amer, Chairman of the Egyptian National Railways (ENR), to discuss what Egypt’s next steps are in its ambitious plan to invest in and develop its railway, which is the second oldest in the world.
The discussion focused on safety, training, plans to replace diesel locomotives with electric and/or hydrogen-powered traction units, and new railway projects in Egypt. Development is currently underway for 10,000km of train track while the network of eco-friendly light rail, monorail, and underground metro trains is also being expanded.
During the 2-day visit to Cairo, Davenne visited Ramses Station, the Rolling Stock Maintenance and Talgo Workshops at the Farz Depot, and took a train from the Adly Mansour metro station. He also met with the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) while visiting a new workshop. During the technical visits, the focus of the discussions was on ENR’s membership with UIC, safety issues, open source UIC OpenRail Foundation software, and data sharing maintenance.
