Egyptians were surprised on Friday by the hike in the Cairo metro fare, a decision that has added to the burdens of mainly low-income commuters who represent society at large.
There was widespread anger when the Transportation Ministry announced that commuters will be charged a base fare of 3 Egyptian pounds for the first 9 stops, 5 Egyptian pounds for up to 16 stops, and a maximum of 7 pounds for anything more than 16.
The ministry justified the move by saying that revenues will be used in improving the quality of the service provided to millions of Egyptians, who have expressed fear that a fare raise for taxis and public buses would come next.
Abdul Rahim al-Seed, a man in his fifties, said that he and his wife would now have to pay 28 pounds a day to head to work and return home. “How would we be able to live?” he asked in frustration.
The timing to raise the fare is not appropriate, Seed told Asharq Al-Awsat. “It comes before the month of Ramadan and the Eid.”
The government angered Cairo residents, already hit by a sharp rise in living costs, when it doubled the price of metro tickets last year for millions of commuters.
But the Transportation Ministry said Thursday that the new increase comes amid accumulated losses of 618.6 million pounds for the metro system.
Hours before the ministry’s decision, MP Mohammed Fouad, who is a member of the parliamentary planning and budget committee, requested a briefing on repeated malfunctions in the metro’s air conditioning system, calling for routine maintenance amid rising temperatures and ahead of the scorching summer heat.
MP Abdul Hamid Kamal also called on Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and the Transportation Minister to head to the parliament to discuss the metro fare hike.
“The increases were made without consulting the parliament and without briefing the transportation and communications committee,” Kamal told Asharq al-Awsat.
“The government should have resorted to other alternatives such as placing ads on metro trains rather than raising the fare,” he said.
