No increase in Cairo metro tickets prices: official

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Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 01:18 GMT

BY

Sat, 19 Jan 2019 - 01:18 GMT

Cairo's Attaba Metro Station - Photo by Karim Abdel Aziz/Egypt Today

Cairo's Attaba Metro Station - Photo by Karim Abdel Aziz/Egypt Today

CAIRO – 19 January 2019: Cairo metro tickets prices will not see any increase at the present time; however the railway system prices in Egypt are considered the cheapest of all means of transport, the chairman of Railway Ashraf Raslan told Egypt today Saturday.

Raslan added that any decision to increase the tickets' prices in the future, will be subject to study by the Railway authority in prior, and approved by the government.

On May 2018, the Ministry of Transportation increased the price of metro tickets to become LE 3 ($ 0.16) for the first nine stops and an additional LE 2 (total LE 5) for seven more stations. The highest ticket price has been fixed at LE 7 if the commuter travels more than 16 stations.

Egypt had doubled the price of metro tickets in July 2017 from LE 1 to LE 2, a move that came four months after Egypt floated the pound under its economic reform program.

The previous price of a ticket was LE 2, without any determinations for the number of stations.

Transportation Minister Hisham Arafat said the increase to LE 2 followed losses of LE 500 million, which put the network at risk, state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported.

The metro, which works everyday from 5:15 a.m. until 12:30 a.m., was first launched in 1987 and has since become the most important means of transportation in Greater Cairo, helping commuters avoid traffic jams or negotiate fares with unmetered taxis.

Female commuters can either choose to take the non-segregated cars or use the women-only carriages. For many years the metro tickets cost LE 1, no matter how many stations were used, which was very convenient for everyone.

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