Egypt’s transport minister threatens to hire foreign operators to run the country’s troubled railway service if employee negligence persists.
Kamel El Wazir's warning came after two train accidents on consecutive days this week left two people dead and more than 40 injured. The accidents, in Cairo and Alexandria, followed a series of deadly train disasters in March and April that killed at least 43 and injured hundreds.
Mr El Wazir, a retired army general, complained he has not received “sufficient co-operation” from senior managers and employees of the state-owned railway authority since he took the job in 2019, despite what he said were generous state funds spent on upgrading and modernizing the service.
If the "laziness and lethargy" continue, he would contract foreign companies already doing business with the Transport Ministry.
“There is no place for those who are corrupt, negligent or lethargic when it comes to the rights of the Egyptian people,” he said, adding that any employee found to have made a mistake that caused loss of life or material damage will be fired.
“The leaders and workers of the Railway Authority must work day and night and carry out their tasks exactly as per their job description,” Mr El Wazir said at a signing of a $110-million contract with a South Korean consortium to upgrade the signals system between Luxor and Nagaa Hamady.
The series of recent train accidents have highlighted Egypt’s struggling railway sector.
Initial findings by prosecutors into what caused the accidents in March and April have revealed a litany of criminal negligence, corruption and even the use of drugs by rail workers.
Arrests have been made, with some railway officials facing manslaughter charges.
On Sunday, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said government workers would be subject to random drug tests, and anyone found with illegal substances in their system would be sacked.
Besides hundreds of accidents a year - many of them too minor to be reported by the local media – the debt-ridden service is plagued by delays, overcrowding and technical glitches.
Mr El Wazir said there were plans to spend 225 billion Egyptian pounds ($14.37bn) on overhauling the country’s rail service over the next three years.
