Egypt has the oldest railway in Africa and the Middle East, founded in 1854, and it is still the way the country gets around: around 800 million passengers a year, a network centred on Cairo and Alexandria, and a line that runs the length of the Nile valley from the Mediterranean to Aswan. For a visitor it is the cheap, civilised option, and on the Cairo to Alexandria run it is quicker than the road.
The experience divides into two. On the main routes you get air-conditioned carriages in first and second class, a seat reservation, and tea. On the commuter and rural services you get second and third class without air conditioning, fares kept deliberately low as a social service, and an entirely different journey. Neither is wrong, but they are not the same product, and the ticket you buy decides which one you are in.
The long run south
The journey people plan holidays around is Cairo to Luxor and on to Aswan. By day it is nine to ten hours to Luxor and about three more to Aswan, down the valley with the Nile on one side, fields and palm groves on both, and the desert edge appearing in the afternoon. It is slow and it is scenery, which is not a bad combination if you are not in a hurry.
The alternative is the sleeper, which turns the journey into a night. An overnight service runs daily in both directions on the Alexandria to Cairo to Luxor to Aswan route, with private twin cabins, a berth rather than a bed, and dinner and breakfast included. You board in the evening, sleep through the middle of nowhere, and step out in Luxor or Aswan in the morning with the day in front of you. In the winter season it sells out, so book as far ahead as you can.
Cairo to Alexandria, which is the easy one
The line to the Mediterranean is the most useful piece of railway in Egypt for a short trip: a couple of hours, several departures a day, and first class costing very little more than second. Trains leave from Ramses station in Cairo and arrive at Misr or Sidi Gaber in Alexandria, both of which are on the tram and taxi networks.
If you have never taken an Egyptian train, take this one first. It will teach you the system, the platform, the ticket check, the food trolley and the fact that an announcement in Arabic is usually followed by one in English, if you are standing near the right door.
Booking, classes and what to expect
Ordinary trains can be booked through the railway’s own site and app, or bought at the station, which is cheaper and works well outside the peak. The sleeper is a separate service with its own booking channels. Take your passport, because foreign passengers are sometimes asked for it, and keep your ticket: inspectors walk the carriages and the platforms are not always signed in English.
On classes: first is wider, quieter and emptier, second is comfortable and often almost identical on a short run, and third is where the cheap fares live. For the long runs, buy the class you can afford and sit in it; the ticket tells you the carriage, and standing in the wrong one is a conversation you will have more than once.
Expect delays, expect that the schedule is a plan rather than a promise, and do not put a train and a flight on the same day with less than a full day between them. Take water, because the trolley is intermittent, and take something to eat on the long runs, because the dining car is not always there when you want it.
Safety, and the future
Riding Egyptian trains is normal and unremarkable, and for long distances it is how the country travels. The network does have a history of accidents, mostly at level crossings and on older sections, which is the reason for the modernisation programme and for the high-speed line now under construction to link the Red Sea coast with the Nile and the Mediterranean. That project will change these journeys when it opens; for now, the sleeper and the day trains are what exist.
Practical safety is the ordinary kind: keep your luggage with you or in the rack above, use the class you paid for, avoid the very late services if you are travelling alone, and treat the station taxi touts the way you would anywhere: agree the price before you get in.
Egyptian trains are old, cheap, slow and useful, and the sleeper south is one of the few travel experiences in the country that does two jobs at once: it moves you and it accommodates you. Book early, buy the better class for the long haul, and let the Nile go past the window.