In the metropolitan region of Cairo, two elevated, fully-automated driverless monorail lines are currently under construction in order to significantly improve public transport service at local level.
A total of 102 km of monorail are to be built in a very short time: The 42 km long West Line starting from 6th October City south of the city centre via 13 stations to Giza, passing the world-famous pyramids, and the 57 km long East Line starting in East Cairo and running via 22 stations to the newly built but far from completed New Administrative City. Here, it offers a connection and transfer to the new “Light Rail” rapid transit railway system, which also leads to Cairo further north.
This will create what is currently the world’s largest monorail network in Cairo. 70 four-car, driverless articulated trains of the Bombardier Innovia™ 300 type are being used, which are being delivered from the Alstom plant in Derby in Great Britain. The first vehicle was completed and delivered in Sept 2021, and could be presented in Cairo on an already completed section of track.
Construction work only began on a large scale 2.5 years ago, and yet it is currently about 45% complete on the East Line and about 30% on the West Line. 700,000 tonnes of concrete and 140,000 tonnes of steel will be used! Even though the planned opening date of 2023 will probably not be met, the construction progress remains remarkable, and the first section of the East Line is expected to go into operation late next year.
A total of 2.7 billion euros is being invested in the construction of the two lines, partly financed by foreign development banks.
