Arafat argued that the “low price of metro tickets has for years been one of the biggest problems facing the country’s transportation sector.”
Last March, Egypt doubled the price of standard metro tickets to 2 pounds.
Arafat had said in July that ticket prices for Cairo’s metro system are expected to see a gradual increase, eventually reaching 4 pounds by the last quarter of 2018.
Cairo’s fourth metro line will run from downtown to Cairo International Airport in the easternmost part of the city.
In recent years, Metro officials have urged the cabinet to increase ticket prices in order to stop financial losses.
Cairo’s underground metro system, launched in 1987, is one of the oldest in the Middle East and Africa.
Over 3.5 million of Greater Cairo’s 21 million residents rely on the metro in their daily commutes, according to estimates by the country’s National Authority for Tunnels.
Source: Ahram online
