The Ministry of Transport has announced the trial operation of the East Nile Monorail without passengers. The project extends from the Stadium station in Nasr City to the monorail project's operations and control center in the New Administrative Capital, with a length of 56.5 km, and includes 22 stations. It is being implemented by a consortium of companies (Alstom – Orascom – Arab Contractors).
The total length of the two monorail projects (East/West Nile) is 100 km with 35 stations. The monorail train consists of four cars, and the number of cars is planned to increase to eight as population density grows in the new urban areas it serves.
The East Cairo Monorail will help connect the Greater Cairo region with the new urban areas and cities to the east (New Cairo – the Administrative Capital), and will also help facilitate the movement of employees and visitors from Cairo and Giza to New Cairo and the Administrative Capital, as it integrates with Metro Line 3 at the Stadium station in Nasr City and with the LRT electric light rail at the Arts and Culture station in the New Administrative Capital.
The monorail, being implemented in Egypt for the first time, represents a major civilizational leap in mass transit, which is fast, modern and safe, saves fuel, reduces environmental pollution and eases traffic congestion on main corridors and streets, and attracts passengers to use it instead of private cars to reduce fuel consumption, as it runs on electric power (environmentally friendly).
The monorail is built in places where it is difficult to build metro lines and other rail transport. It can be built in narrow, congested streets with sharp horizontal curves and does not require many modifications to utilities. The monorail runs on an elevated track along the central median of the streets it passes through and does not occupy any part of the street, which means traffic on these streets is not affected, according to the official Facebook page of the Ministry of Transport.
