The Qalyoub train collision occurred at a converging junction in Qalyoub to the north of

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

on 21 August 2006, when two commuter

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

s collided during the morning rush hour, killing 58 people and injuring over 140.

Overview

A passenger train from

Mansoura Mansoura (' , rural: ) is a city in Egypt, with a population of 960,423. It is the capital of the Dakahlia Governorate. Etymology ''Mansoura'' in Arabic means "victorious". The city is named after the El Mansoura Battle against Louis IX of Fr ...

passed a red signal and crashed into a stationary train that had come from

Benha Banha ( arz, بنها ; , ) is the capital of the Qalyubiyya Governorate in north-eastern Egypt. Between the capital of Cairo and the city of Tanta, Banha is an important transport hub, as rail lines from Cairo to various cities in the Nile Del ...

. Four

passenger car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

s derailed in the accident, which closed the line in the country's

Nile Delta The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Po ...

region. The train was estimated to have been travelling at more than at the time of the collision. The driver of the Mansoura service was amongst the dead.

Aftermath

In the wake of the accident,

Egyptian National Railways Egyptian National Railways (ENR; ar, السكك الحديدية المصرية, Al-Sikak al-Ḥadīdiyyah al-Miṣriyyah) is the national railway of Egypt and managed by the parastatal Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA; ar, الهيئة الق� ...

director Hanafi Abdel Qawi was dismissed and 14 railway officials were later charged with gross negligence and jailed. The prosecutor's office said the officials ignored repairing some technical equipment that control train signals. Egypt has a poor safety record on its railways and there are several fatal accidents each year, usually blamed on inadequately maintained equipment. Families of each victim who died in the accident received compensation of £E5,000 (about $US870). Passengers who were injured will get £E1,000.

Proposed upgrade

Egypt is proposing to implement an upgrade project including some upgrade of its signalling.

Similar accidents

* 1908 - Sunshine (Braybrook Junction)

References

External links