Egyptian National Railways has commissioned a Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) system for the 208 km Cairo–Alexandria line, the country’s busiest passenger corridor. The upgrade was delivered by Hitachi Rail as part of a broader effort by Egypt’s Ministry of Transport to modernize the national railway infrastructure.
The CTC, based in Cairo, oversees operations across all 19 stations on the route. Alongside the main control centre, the project also includes new signalling towers, technical buildings, and updated level crossings. The decade-long modernization effort replaces legacy mechanical and electrical systems with electronic interlockings, digital signalling, and a communications network for real-time train control.
The overall value of the project has surpassed EUR 100 million, having been expanded since the original contract signing in 2013. As part of the modernisation, the line now allows for a top operating speed of 160 km/h, increasing the average speed by 40 km/h. This is expected to reduce travel time between the two cities to around two and a half hours.
The improvements also raise the operational capacity of the corridor, with the maximum number of daily trains projected to rise from 140 to 286. The upgraded infrastructure is intended to support both passenger and freight operations, including a long-term plan to increase the number of daily freight trains from the current level to 15 by 2030, and further to 50 by 2060.
The freight strategy includes a target to shift up to 18,400 containers per year from road to rail. Projections suggest this modal shift could eliminate approximately 965,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions over three decades.
The Cairo–Alexandria railway line forms a vital part of Egypt’s 10,000 km network, which carries approximately 500 million passengers annually.
