The first driverless monorail network in Africa was inaugurated in Cairo. The East Nile line, opened to the public in May, spans 56.5 kilometers and connects the Cairo International Stadium in Nasr City district to the New Administrative Capital, a city built by Egyptian authorities in the desert to alleviate urban pressure on the capital.
A second line, West Nile, with a length of 43.8 kilometers, is currently under construction and will link the satellite city of 6th of October in the Cairo metropolitan area to Giza, as reported by CNN.
Upon the completion of both lines, the network will exceed 100 kilometers and could become the longest monorail network in the world.
Currently, the record is held by the system in Chongqing, China, measuring 98.5 kilometers. The Egyptian network will be longer by approximately 1.8 kilometers and is designed to transport around 500,000 passengers per day in one of the most densely populated urban areas in Africa.
During the first three days after the inauguration, rides were free. Subsequently, differentiated fares based on distance were introduced. A ticket for the entire East Nile line costs 80 Egyptian pounds (approximately $1.5), and a quarterly pass, valid for 180 trips, ranges from 1,800 to 7,200 Egyptian pounds, depending on the number of zones crossed.
The project comes at a time when the road infrastructure and congested traffic in Cairo exert immense pressure on the existing three metro lines, which transport approximately 500 million passengers annually. To expand the capacity of the public transport system, Egyptian authorities signed a $3 billion contract in 2019 with the French manufacturer Alstom for the construction and operation of the monorail network.
Alstom, in partnership with the Egyptian companies Orascom Construction and Arab Contractors, manufactured 272 carriages at its plant in Derby, United Kingdom. The project also received financial support from UK Export Finance, the British export credit agency.
The 68 trains can carry up to 45,000 passengers per hour in each direction and travel at speeds of up to 80 km/h on prefabricated concrete beams placed above Cairo's congested streets.
The system operates entirely autonomously. Train start and stop, door opening and closing, as well as emergency management, are automatically controlled by a high-capacity radio communication-based signaling system, allowing precise train localization.
Among the advantages of the monorail are reduced carbon emissions, low noise levels, and the ability to recover up to 99% of the energy generated during braking, thereby contributing to energy consumption reduction.
C.S.