Egypt’s president urges contracting with German national railway company DB to operate, manage express electric train system

CAIRO – 15 August 2022: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has urged immediately contracting with the German national railway company Deutsche Bahn (DB) to operate and manage the express electric train system in Egypt.

Sisi made the remarks in a meeting on Monday with CEO at DB E.C.O. Group Niko Warbanoff, CEO of Elsewedy Electric Ahmed Elsewedy and Chairperson of the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) Sherif Hassan.

The meeting discussed cooperation between the Egyptian Ministry of Transport and DB to operate and manage the country’s express electric train system, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Radi said.

During the meeting, Minister of Transport Kamel El-Wazir reviewed the ministry’s efforts to formulate a contract between the National Authority for Tunnels and the German company.

The contract to manage and operate the train network with its three lines covering a distance of 2,000 kilometers would come in partnership with the private sector, represented by Elsewedy Electric, according to the statement.

For his part, Warbanoff affirmed looking forward to cooperating with the Egyptian Ministry of Transport to manage and operate the three lines of the express electric train system in Egypt.

DB will also be in charge of training Egyptian engineers and technicians, Warbanoff said, praising the scale of developmental accomplishments made in Egypt in the past years under the leadership of Sisi.

With more than 500 subsidiary companies in the field of railways, freight transport and infrastructure management related to electric trains, DB is one of the top companies regarding management and operation of railways in Europe and worldwide, the spokesman said.

Late in May, Egypt signed a contract with Siemens Mobility to construct the country’s high-speed rail, which covers a distance of 2,000 km, and is considered to be the sixth largest of its kind worldwide, according to the German company.

Egypt’s first high-speed rail network will allow around 500 million journeys per year, according to the company with the first line linking Ain Sokhna city with Alexandria and Matrouh.

The second line of the network will connect Cairo to Aswan and the third line will link Luxor with Hurghada city, added the company.

Siemens Mobility said the project will help secure up to 40,000 direct job opportunities in Egypt as well as 6,700 indirect jobs.