The train ride to the end of Egyptian railways west line is provided by a seemingly little known station in Alexandria, the line as far as track is concerned is quite good condition but the stock is horrific. A single journey cost us each about 25p, lasting four hours and the return 5 hours. There was evidence of the new Siemens etc contract to upgrade and new stock should arrive when complete providing a high-speed electrified line connecting Ain Sokhna to Mersa Matruh and Alexandria. Siemens will supply Velaro high-speed trains, Desiro regional sets, and Vectron freight locomotives. Mersa Matruh was a filthy town drowning in rubbish. Photography of any sort is a risky business especially with the events on the Garza Strip leading to heightened tensions and seeing Israeli spies behind every bush. They had been whipped up to a frenzy on Sunday and we experienced thousands of children being shipped to the anti Israel demonstrations in the so called day of fury.
We arrived to start the day in heavy rain, it was soaking wet in the carriages, the few seats in the first (sic) class section were the first to fill but the ordinary carriages had more open windows and I managed to get shots along a whole section of line from the window without mishap. At Mersa Matruh there were a lot of tanks off loaded at the rail head, a good job I'd exchanged memory chips before we got picked up by the secret services, mind you they could have been Noddy in Toyland as most we playing whatever people do on computer toys. We did get away after showing the tram pictures. So each photo obtained against streams of people and traffic and kids jumping in front and adults waving sticks is all the more precious for its history. So first at the end of a long day the Loco courtesy Martin Rickett my travelling companion.