Metro travelers will soon book their ride via mobile app

CAIRO – 31 December 2019: Egyptian Metro Company prepares to launch a mobile application to help daily travelers using the subway with information about booking and subscriptions.

The application is part of the government’s bid to lessen the crowd at booking booths, and to facilitate the daily commute that is used by millions of Cairenes into a painless ride.

Passengers will be able to issue their metro subscriptions whatever their types, and by downloading the required documents on the application, they can head to the nearest metro subscription office and receive theirs.

The new app will substitute booking booths and subscription offices, as well as complaint and customer services offices.

According to official sources, the metro application is currently being designed, and is expected to launch soon.

The Ministry of Transport officially launched in October 2018 a railway booking application that helps Egyptians book train tickets through their mobile phones for the first time, without the need to wait in queues outside ticket booths.

On The Rails

The number of passengers using the railway system in Egypt reached 21.9 million in January, as the train remains considered an easy and comfortable means of transport for traveling round the country independently. Yet, the system does not come without errors.

Bids to reduce crowd a metro ticket booths were numerous, with a recent announcement by the Ministry of Transport to adopting a new booking method at metro stations, where passengers will use their credit cards.

The new system is one of the government’s moves towards digital transformation, and will be followed by a global tender to select a company to implement a new digital payment system.

The new booking system will depend on credit cards to cross the electronic portals at subway stations instead of paper tickets. The electronic portals will deduct the trip cost directly from the credit card without having to have a ticket.

The entry machine will set aside the maximum value for the ticket. The exit machine will calculate the actual trip value and deduct its value from the credit card.

The idea of the initiative depends on installing a "reader" on the electronic portals, to read the credit card used by the passenger and deduct the value of the trip.

Accepting all types of bank credit cards, the new system will be adopted alongside the paper tickets and smart cards, with a plan set to gradually replace the cashiers. The new system will become the only system to collect the cost of the trips beside the smart cards.
Minister of Transport Kamel el-Wazir instructed to initiate public offering procedures to choose a company from various international companies to implement the project, and supply the required software and reader devices.

The idea of the project depends on collecting the value of the ticket from the passengers’ credit cards directly, then transferring the value to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to be transferred then to the Egypt Metro Company account.