Egypt plans to extend high-speed rail lines to Sudan, Libya: Transport minister

CAIRO – 8 March 2023: Minister of Transport Kamel El Wazir said Egypt plans to extend its high-speed railway service to Sudan and Libya as he spoke during the World High Speed Rail Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco on Tuesday.

The ministry plans to extend the second line of the high-speed train from Abu Simbel in southern Egypt to Sudan’s Wadi Halfa, Wazir said.

In addition, the ministry plans to extend the train’s first line to Salloum in northwestern Egypt then to Benghazi in Libya, Wazir added.

In May last year, Egypt and Siemens Mobility finalized a contract to build 2,000 km high-speed rail system in Egypt with Siemens Mobility’s share of the contract totaling 8.1 billion euros.

The high-speed train system in Egypt is planned to comprise three lines; the first 660 km line will connect Ain Sokhna on the Red Sea to Matrouh and Alexandria on the Mediterranean while the second 1,100 km line will connect Cairo to Abu Simbel.

The third line will cover 225 km from Luxor in Upper Egypt to Hurghada on the Red Sea.

During his speech today, Wazir also spoke about the need to develop railway in African countries, saying the continent requires building around 18,000 km of rail lines by 2040.

This would help Africa, which has only around 5 percent of the total railway lines around the world, to fill the shortage it faces in its railway system projects, he added.