The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Featured image via © Bombardier

Earlier this week, we published an article about the potential construction of a monorail at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula in Sharm El Sheikh. Simultaneously, we mentioned that Egypt was offering a tender to set up two additional monorails, one of which is a 54-km-long line, linking the New Administrative Capital with East Cairo and Downtown, and a second one connecting 6th October City with Giza through a 42-km-network. We also added that several international companies had already submitted their bids for the project. As we always like to keep out readers updated, we decided to share a recent piece of important information that has come to our attention, regarding the 2-monorail plan.

After carefully analysing the feasibility and viability of the bids, we finally have a winner! Its country of origin is the home of Sir Elton John, the Beatles, and the delicious delicacy known as fish ‘n’ chips; that’s right it’s the UK. The British embassy stated on Tuesday that the construction company that will execute the multi-billion Euro project is Bombardier Transportation, pending final confirmation, and it will collaborate with two Egyptian companies; Orascom Construction and the Arab Contractors. According to its website, Bombardier is a global mobility solution provider, leading the way with the industry’s broadest portfolio.

Daily News shares some details of the deal. Firstly, the potential value of the bid for Bombardier Transportation is approximately 3 billion Euros for the engineering procurement and construction, as well as the operations and maintenance. In addition, the rolling stock part of the order will be developed and built in Derby, the UK. We found out that the Derby site employs 1,800 workers and this will be the first export of overseas rolling stock from there since 2010 when Bombardier built trains for South Africa. As mentioned in our previous article, the two monorail projects will have 27 trains and will transport around 48,000 passengers per hour in each direction, with a journey time of 35 minutes.

We dug around a bit further to extract more data on the subject. We discovered a piece by the BBC, saying that the monorails will involve building 70 four-car trains to be exported to Egypt between 2021 and 2024. They also quoted Phil Hufton, the Managing Director of Bombardier Transportation, who expressed his opinion on the matter, “It will create a situation where we will probably employ about 100 people on this contract – that includes apprentices as well.” He added, “It shows that the British rail industry is world class and can compete and win in global markets.” Moreover, Egypt Independent’s sources believe that the other consortium of a Chinese company and the Arab Organization for Industrialization are still a possible choice if negotiations with the first consortium fail to provide the best prices and manufacturing components.

At the end of the day, whichever bid is chosen, we are sure that the most beneficial choice for our country will be selected.