Cairo To The Coast

This 64-minute documentary movie bursts with information and atmosphere as the action flows from the huge Cairo Central Station out to Cairo’s two metro lines, then north through the lesser-known areas of the fertile Nile Delta region as far as Alexandria, Egypt’s second city on the Mediterranean coast. This film comprises 7 individual chapters (also available as separate downloads for added choice and flexibility). These are:

1. Cairo Central Station: On location in the historic trainshed, and with archive footage of early steam and diesel locomotives

2. Cairo Metro: On location on Line 1 at Mar Girgis, and Line 2 at Opera and Agricultural Faculty.

3. Cairo to Alexandria Delta Mainline: Great footage from expertly-chosen wayside vantage points at Difra, Shubra el-Nimla and Kafr el-Zayat stations as trains of all classes thunder through at speed. 

4. Tanta Junction. The centre of Delta operations merits two chapters, first looking at its history and mainline operations. 

5. Tanta Day & Night: The second film at this important junction looks at Minuf line services, more mainline services and operations after sunset into the atmospheric night. 

6. Alexandria & Abu Qir: Initially covering Alexandria’s 3 stations, concentrating on the elegant Misr terminal, this film moves to cover intensive diesel push-pull workings at the suburban terminus of Abu Qir.

7. Deeper into the Delta: The final chapter moves to important secondary lines in the central and northern Delta to look at trains passing at Santa, Muhallet Ruh and finally Mansoura stations, with a final look over the Nile as the train heads from Mansoura to Talkha.

With useful maps, on-screen explanatory captions and a full informative commentary from Paul Quince, this film is really the next closest thing to being there!

Note: This is a very large file at 791Mb. Please ensure you are able to download and play this M4V file (MPEG-4) before purchasing.