Cairo Metro installs smartcard turnstiles for 1st, 2nd lines

CAIRO – 6 May 2017: The Cairo Metro Company started replacing 580 old ticket machines with smartcard turnstiles for the first and the second lines, said Khaled Sabra, an official at the company on Saturday.

The replacement process is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, he added, saying “by the time the turnstiles are installed, they will have operated in each station.”
In October 2015, the government concluded an agreement with the French company, Thales, to buy 850 smartcard turnstiles at $160 million.

Cairo’s vital metro service has 64 stations operating three lines. According to the Egyptian Company for Metro Management, it is the second most popular means of public transport in Egypt after the microbus.

Cairo’s underground system is one of the oldest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, which serves around 3.5 million passengers daily.