Egypt’s high-speed train to make rail most effective choice of travel: Siemens Mobility CEO tells CNN

CAIRO – 17 September 2021: The high-speed electrified main rail line being established in Egypt will cut travelling times and “will make rail the most effective choice of travel,” CNN quoted Siemens Mobility’s CEO Michael Peter as saying.

A report by the CNN on Friday hailed Egypt’s high-speed rail line as a “Suez Canal on tracks,” highlighting its importance to travel across desert especially amid the significant growth of Egyptian population over the past three decades.

"In Egypt the population is growing, the economy is growing -- so it will attract a lot more traffic and the question is which type of transportation will people and goods use,” Peter told CNN.

The main rail line will link Cairo to the New Administrative Capital, east of Cairo, and other surrounding new cities, and, according to Siemens, will be used by over 30 million people per year.

The line will help cut travel time by half and raise freight capacity by 15 percent, according to Siemens.

This comes as Siemens Mobility signed a contract earlier in September with Egypt's National Authority for Tunnels to build 660 out of planned 1,800-kilometer network.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli met late in August with President and CEO of Siemens Roland Busch in the presence of Transport Minister Kamel El-Wazir, MENA reported.

During the meeting, the premier expressed pleasure over reaching an agreement on all the technical details of a high-speed train project, which will be carried out in Egypt.

This huge project will achieve a qualitative leap in the transport system in Egypt, Madbouli said, praising fruitful cooperation between Egypt and Siemens under the leadership of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Wazir, for his part, expounded on the technical amendments introduced by the ministry to the project in order to make the utmost use of it.