Egypt mulls electronic gates at railway stations after ticketless man jumps to death

Cairo: Egypt’s rail authorities consider installing electronic gates at railway stations to stop passengers with no tickets from boarding trains, Transport Minister Kamel Al Wazir was quoted as saying on Monday.

His remarks come after a ticket collector last week forced two street vendors to jump off a moving train for failing to pay fares, resulting in the death of one of them.

The other was injured.

“The system of electronic turnstile gates, already in place at the Cairo Metro stations, will ensure that the passenger will have the ticket before riding the train,” Al Wazir added during a tour of Cairo’s main rail station.

The October 28 incident triggered outrage in Egypt and prompted calls for the resignation of Al Wazir, who took his post last February replacing the then transport minister in the aftermath of a deadly fire at the main train station in central Cairo.

On Sunday, Al Wazir met rail employees and urged them to “respect passengers’ rights and abide by the law”.

This week, Egypt’s chief prosecutor referred the ticket collector to an urgent trial after investigations proved he forced the two men aged 23 and 25 years to jump out in Tanta, north of Cairo.

Both youths rode the train from the coastal city of Alexandria to return to their homes in Cairo.

In recent months, Egyptian rail authorities have toughened measures including fines against riders with no tickets in an attempt to augment revenues for revamping the rickety state-run facility.