Derby-built trains enter commercial service on Cairo monorail

Trains assembled and tested at Alstom’s Derby site for a new monorail network in Cairo have started carrying fare-paying passengers.

The first phase of the Cairo Monorail has officially started operating, with passengers travelling on trains built at the firm’s Litchurch Lane Works.

It is the first time a British factory has exported rolling stock since 2008, when Derby last put trains on a ship, bound for the Gautrain rail network in South Africa’s Gauteng province.

The Cairo trains are part of a £2.3 billion contract to construct and operate Egypt’s new monorail network, backed by UK Export Finance.

The contract was won in a competitive international tender and delivered against a schedule that saw the first train leave Litchurch Lane just 20 months after contract signature.

The last of the 68 trains departed Derby in January 2024. Throughout, the programme sustained 150 direct jobs.

The monorail system in Cairo is the first of its kind in Africa and among the most significant urban transit projects in the region.

The first phase spans 26 miles – a distance similar to the length of London’s Jubilee line.

Running above street level on pre-cast beams, it is designed to reduce commute times, cut road congestion and lower carbon emissions across a metropolitan area of over 20 million people.

The driverless network spans two lines serving Cairo’s rapidly growing suburban population and is designed to carry up to 45,000 passengers per hour, per direction.

Litchurch Lane is the only site in Britain that can design, engineer, build and test trains for domestic and export markets.

Andrew DeLeone, chief executive officer for Europe at Alstom, said: “Alstom has proved again that UK rail can be an export powerhouse.

“Litchurch Lane is a unique end-to-end rolling stock ‘Centre of Excellence’.

“The Cairo programme shows this site can compete and win anywhere.

“With UK Export Finance, we are pursuing opportunities across the Middle East, Africa and Asia to support the UK Government’s plans to maximise trade opportunities now and in the future.”

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “Derby’s success in Cairo shows what Britain can achieve when government and business pull together – exporting to new markets, winning global contracts and bringing jobs and investment back to communities across the UK.

“Our economic plan is the right one – an active and strategic state working in partnership with business to grow the economy in all parts of our country.”