29/03/2010
In 2000 an idea was formed to construct a railway network to link the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries. This link could result in increasing commercial links between countries of the area and reduce traffic and pollution. Lebanon announced a project to construct a railway line linking Beirut Port and Arab Gulf Ports. This network will connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Arab Gulf by land. Egypt railway must be developed. For many years it concentrated on the movement of passengers not goods. Grants or subsidies can be accessed and used for its financing needs for modernization.(Available in Arabic – German in PDF)
Egyptian railway is described as “rich from its assets and poor from its revenues’. Economic problems will disappear if this facility is developed to achieve the national ambitions. Railway lines abandoned providing transport services for the inputs and outputs of the food processing industry. Also, the railway line doesn’t provide services for the transport of bulk materials. Railway lines need to activate their storage areas to perform storage services and to deliver goods. There are ten pivots to develop the railway and achieve targeted ambitions as follows: Importing used and refurbished tractors on a short term basis, extending lines and providing services of release for imported and exported goods by railway, providing transport of containers and refrigerated transport, providing transport of bulk materials inside special containers, founding a company for providing taxi services and light transport for all railway stations, providing courier services, establishing a banking mechanism for the railway, extending the railway line to Toshka and the Rea Sea Ports, founding an insurance company for goods and individuals and constructing 3 Star hotels on railway properties.
