The train ambles into el-Marazeeq station at 8:09. As the express train shoots past us, one passenger says, "Fast as lightning!" The train is deflected to another track to make way for an express train. From there, it leaves for Badrasheen, arriving there eight minutes later. ![]() ![]() Grimacing, Mohamed Abdel Baqy, a 47-year-old worker, says, "Why on earth is it that slow?"Īt 7:22 the train is in Hawamdeya. It hardly moves before it stops again near Omm Khannan village for a few minutes. "Just how dodgy is that!" yells Sami Abdalla Mabrouk, a 33-year-old driver, "Aren’t things supposed to be better after the crash? I have been using this line for ten years, but never have I seen such negligence!"Īt 7:09 the train gets going. In fact, two minutes later, the train stops at the village of Tamwah, where it stays for another 14 minutes, after being deflected. But the train doesn’t even make it to Hawamdeya. "We would have been in Hawamdeya by now," one passenger groans. "The train should’ve been deflected, now an express train could hit us from the rear," some scared passengers say.Ībout 37 minutes later, the train proceeds again amid the growls of the passengers. Fifteen minutes later, however, the train stops. There must be a crash to get them to give the poor some attention," they grumble. "Today’s the first time we ride a good train. Everyone is seated in their places, though they never stop talking. It’s 5:40 now and finally, the train sounds its whistle to announce its departure. The train is often packed in the mornings, with people sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, an inconvenience that female passengers like Shaimaa Naguib complain about. But passengers are usually annual subscribers and don’t have to book a ticket everyday. The price of a ticket on this train to Ayyat depends on where you get off, but the price never exceeds LE3, even if you go all the way to the ends. "That means that someone like me will pay all the money she made just to book a ticket." Perhaps that’s why the passengers are choosing this train over the express one to get to their nearby villages. "It is fast, but the ticket is LE4.50," says a seller in her fifties, stretching her legs out on a seat. Others remain on their train, their eyes following the departing cars of the express in despair. The minute they see it leaving before theirs, some passengers jump out hoping to catch it before it’s too late. ![]() The employees start fidgeting as they see the express train pulling out of the Giza station at 5:30. Time passes, but the train remains stationary. The female sellers chatter about their daily experiences in the capital, while gobbling down their food.
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