8 major railway incidents in Egypt

After two trains collided in the Alexandria Governorate on Friday, an incident in which at least 41 people were killed and over 150 were injured, Mada Masr has compiled an account of the other major rail disasters since the 2002 fire in Ayat that killed over 300 people.

The Friday accident occurred when express train 13 collided with the back of train 571 in the Khourshid district, both of which were heading toward Alexandria and originating from Cairo and the canal city of Port Said respectively. The impact overturned train 13’s first carriage and the last two carriages on train 571, according to a statement by the Egyptian Railway Authority.

Beyond the details of the individual incidents, there is government data to show that train incidents are on the rise, despite a dip around the time of the 2011 revolution, which coincided with widespread labor movements pushing for improvements to services. According to a 2014 report issued by CAMPAS, the condition of Egypt’s railways is to blame for most fatalities. The report added, however, that a significant number of recorded incidents occur at manually operated railroad crossings.