In a small room of no more than one and a half square meters with no toilet, Hamdi Ahmed Mansour, who has been working at the railroad crossing of ‘Awlad Elias’ village in the Sodfa district for seven years, receives instructions from his supervisor, via a very old telephone, ordering him to close the crossing or open it to let trains pass.

“I work almost 12 hours per shift and rest for 24 hours. I earn a monthly salary of $115, which is not enough since I have a family of four and kids at school, which forced me to work as a whitewasher at other times.”

In a small room of no more than one and a half square meters with no toilet, Hamdi Ahmed Mansour, who has been working at the railroad crossing of ‘Awlad Elias’ village in the Sodfa district for seven years, receives instructions from his supervisor, via a very old telephone, ordering him to close the crossing or open it to let trains pass.

“I work almost 12 hours per shift and rest for 24 hours. I earn a monthly salary of $115, which is not enough since I have a family of four and kids at school, which forced me to work as a whitewasher at other times.”

“My profession,” explained Mansour, “is difficult and needs tremendous attention since I am responsible for the lives of thousands of people. However, my job is not excluded to opening and closing the level crossing; I have to alert people to the arrival of a train by using the whistle.” 

He receives instructions from his supervisor over a very old phone, as to whether or not he should open the crossing because of another oncoming train. During the day shift, he said, 36 trains might cross while at night this number increases to 80.

Gruesome accidents

Mansour said that he and his colleagues received insults from people when they refused to open the level crossing before the train’s passage.  “One day, he remembered, “I witnessed an accident that I cannot forget; a person was crossing the barrier on his donkey despite the closure of the level crossing when a speedy train ran over him and his donkey.” 

“This painful accident saddened me. Only once was I called for testimony about the breakage of one of the level crossing gates by a truck.” 

Last July, Hani Hijab, former head of the Railways Authority, promised to spend US $588,000 to develop a signal system between Banha, Alexandria, Beni Suef and Asyut that converts mechanical signals into electronic ones.

“Nothing has been done”, Hamdi said, “those were mere words. If this had been true, the level crossing accident would not have taken place. I only demand that Hijab’s words become deeds. We also need to close the openings in the fences nearby the level crossings to prevent people from crossing in order to avoid accidents.”

The low salary and long working hours are suffered not only by the level crossing attendant but also by the level crossing guard. Ahmed Sayed Abdulghani, 55 years old, who sometimes assists the attendant in opening the gates when he needs to go to the rest room or buy food, said, “I have been working in this profession for 15 years. I was paid US $98 before the revolution and now I get US $131.  My main responsibility is to guard the level crossing and its surrounding fence against quarrels or theft of electrical cables and other guarding duties.”

Level crossings problems are not confined to the attendant or the guard; it includes thousands of citizens who cross them on a daily basis. An accident like Asyut’s is not rare at all; according to official reports of the Ambulance Organization and the Ministry of Interior.  Egypt is among the top ten countries with the largest number of railway accidents with the death toll in 2011 reaching 12,000, including 4,500 killed by train accidents, in addition to 114,000 injured annually.

Despite these dreadful statistics, Michael Sameh cannot help but cross the level crossing of Awlad Elias daily since he goes to his commercial high school in addition to his farm, which exposes him to a potential accident anytime the level crossing encounters some technical problem or negligence by its attendant.

 “I pass the level crossing three to four times daily and I have perceived that it does not close well enough before the arrival of the train, which mainly leads to accidents.  Large trucks, in addition to the large number of tuk-tuks cause traffic jams at the level crossing. ” Michael said.

On the other hand, Abdulhamid Ahmad, who works in a cafe across the level crossing and passes it five to six times a day to fetch the café’s requirements (e.g. tea, sugar, soda) from a supermarket at the other end of the village, believes that building a tunnel or bridge over the level crossing would solve the traffic problem.

Michael Samuel, who works as a tuk-tuk driver and passes the level crossing up to 20 times a day, demands the availability of a traffic policeman at the level crossing to regulate traffic and prevent the pile up of vehicles, which causes accidents.