After decades of neglect and underinvestment, Egypt’s railway system is set to receive a radical overhaul in response to anger over a series of accidents in recent years which left hundreds dead. In August, 58 people were killed and scores injured when a Cairo-bound passenger train travelling at high speed ploughed into the back of another in a station in the Delta. The driver of the incoming train had failed to stop, apparently because he had been given the wrong signal.

Barely two weeks later, two trains collided head on killing two people and injuring dozens. The explanation this time was that, in that area of the Nile Delta, robbers had repeatedly stolen the overhead cables used for signalling.