Egypt's crossing accidents confuse the bigger issue

[John Ashworth]

EGYPT’S CROSSING ACCIDENTS CONFUSE THE BIGGER ISSUE

The collision between a train and bus late in 2012 at a crossing in Egypt, in which 48 lives were lost, resulted in public uproar and demands for improvement in the country’s railway. The need for this is undisputed. Like many other state-owned rail systems in Africa, the network suffers from years of underinvestment...

Demands that crossing protection be comprehensively overhauled confuse the issue when it comes to according priorities...

Crossing collisions are almost without exception the fault of road users who disregard warning signs and/or try to race trains...

PRIVATISING PROPOSALS FOR EGYPT’S RAILWAYS

In the aftermath of recent fatal accidents, there have been calls to privatise Egypt’s railways...

It isn’t quite as easy as that, unfortunately...