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Kinki Sharyo #6006
14 february 2010 - Helwan, Egypt - el Harery Street: The smell in this area was indescribable, although the goats seemed to like it. Kinki Sharyo tram #6006 is shown on a (very) infrequent journey along the Helwan tramway. I doubt that the shepherdess expected to encounter a tram and always brings her animals out onto the tracks, although at many places in the city there is rotting food, dead dogs and other delights. This scene is typical of the condition of the Helwan tramway in its last days.
Comments: 3
Kinki Sharyo #6133
17 february 2010 - Helwan, Egypt - El Harery Street: Kinki Sharyo tram #6133 poses outside the depot, which was full of trams unlikely to ever run again, some of which had been parked there for years. A pair was occasionally tempted into life and dragged reluctantly out onto the rickety tracks, but there was no semblance of a regular service any more and the trams seemed to only run for the crews` amusement. The only travellers now preferred the frequent minibuses which ran everywhere. If you did happen to catch a tram, you had to be sure to bring a sheet of cardboard to sit on (all the seats were filthy) and have lots of time to spare!
Kinki Sharyo #6006
14 february 2010 - Helwan, Egypt - el Teram, Al Tibeen: I have seen many different tramways, but the one I always remember with most affection was at Helwan, a city just south of Cairo. Built in the early 1980s as a showpiece of modern light rail technology, Helwan was literally run into the ground for years, until the 2011 revolution finally came along and put it out of its misery. When I visited in 2010, the system only seemed to operate because no-one in authority knew how to close it down. This is the southern terminus of the main line, situated at no-where in particular, with the tram crew posing for photographs.
Kinki Sharyo #6016
14 february 2010 - Another tramway system which closed down recently was at Helwan, near Cairo and operated by the same city transport authority. Cairo didn`t show much interest in the Helwan operation, however - when we went to see the manager of Cairo tramways to ask whether the Helwan trams were still operating, he said that he didn`t know and we would have to go there to find out! Anyway, they WERE running (just) and we found probably the most decrepit system anywhere in the world, with everything totally broken and scarcely able to move. The revolution in Egypt closed the system for good.
Comments: 4
Mercedes O302S Otomarsan #963 ???
12 january 2012 - Kair, Heluan.
Comments: 3
MCV C120 #8392
12 january 2012 - Kair (Egipt), Heluan, ulica El-Aziz. Kairskie autobusy to z reguły potłuczone wraki, toteż z rzadka spotykane nowe MCV stanowią przyjemną odmianę.
Comments: 5
Alstom
12 january 2012 - Kair (Egipt), Heluan. Końcowa stacja pierwszej linii metra wybudowanej w w latach 1987-89. Linia powstała na bazie dwóch kolejek podmiejskich połączonych tunelem pod centrum miasta. Jedynie 4,5 kilometra linii biegnie pod ziemią, a pozostałe 40 kilometrów jest naziemne. Zasilana jest z sieci górnej.
Comments: 4
Kinki Sharyo #6073
17 february 2010 - Helwan (EG) - Omar Ibn Abd El Aziz street. These Kinki Sharyo trams are from the same large batch as those in Cairo and it looks like some of them have been brought here from the city at some time (although there are lots of ‘spare’ trams in the Helwan depot yard, most of which are probably broken and will never run again). When Helwan was a showplace for light rail operation in the 1980s, trams ran as three-car trains (as still happens in Heliopolis today), but there are no central trailers working today – no doubt these are dumped somewhere at the back of the depot.
Comments: 3
Kinki Sharyo #6073
21 february 2010 - Helwan (EG) - Omar Ibn Abd El Aziz street. A picture by my good friend Christian Breindl shows the place where the tramway splits briefly into four tracks to cross an industrial railway. Please remember that you are looking at a WORKING tramway (even though the operation is very irregular and there doesn’t appear to be a proper timetable). The condition of the tracks is typical of nearly all the Helwan system.
Comments: 1
Kinki Sharyo #6133
17 february 2010 - Helwan (EG) - Omar Ibn Abd El Aziz street. A few more pictures of the amazing Helwan tramway. It is being said that this line stopped running after the Egyptian revolution in summer 2011, and may have closed down – does anyone know the true position? As we only discovered if it was still operating in February 2010 (even senior CTA managers in Cairo didn’t really know), it is clear that you will only find out by actually going there. Even then, we walked the derelict tracks for over 1km until we found one working tram. This is the junction between the ‘main line’ (joke) and branches to the railway station and university, one of which was built but never opened and the other is partly abandoned. Note the Arabic ‘tram stop’ sign with ‘ARRET’ in French underneath.
Comments: 1
Kinki Sharyo #6133
17 february 2010 - Helwan (EG) – El Galel. It seemed that this tram set was brought out specially from the depot, so that the European visitors could all try their hand at tram driving! Typically in Helwan, no local passengers got on or off. We struggled along on very low power (and it seemed with a faulty controller) to this point on the line to the east of the city, where a slight gradient was too much for the tram to continue. Note the luxurious café on the left!
Comments: 4
Kinki Sharyo #6006
17 february 2010 - Helwan (EG) – The Agricultural Road, Al Tibeen. A rare section of proper street running in Helwan. The car has just been abandoned on the track, as the driver was obviously not expecting a tram to come along – understandable, as there doesn’t seem to be any timetable and nothing runs for hours at a time! The customary Egyptian drivers’ shouting match is about to commence……….
Kinki Sharyo #6134
17 february 2010 - Helwan (EG) – El Saif El Sehy. An amazing sight in Helwan – TWO tram sets on the line at the same time! In actual fact, 6134+6133 were just sitting there with the crew taking a little siesta, while 6006+6005 in the distance were heading for the southern terminus. Note the usual state of dereliction everywhere.
Comments: 10
Kinki Sharyo #6006
17 february 2010 - Helwan (EG) – El Teram, Al Tibeen. The southern terminus of the Helwan tram system is here behind a steelworks. When we visited, nothing moved, and the terminus tracks themselves looked totally derelict. A tram does come here occasionally, though – we arrived with this one and I took this picture of the conductor. The tram then suddenly drove off back towards the city, leaving us standing there with a 3km trek to the depot – thanks, guys………
Comments: 3
Kinki Sharyo #6134
17 february 2010 - Helwan, Omar Ibn Abd El Aziz street. And so ends our little trip around Helwan. On our way from the depot we talked our friendly driver into going onto the other branch, but after about a kilometre from the junction he gave up saying something's not right further ahead. We therefore decided to go back to the centre of Helwan, arranging an impromptu tram driver's course. We all passed, but airbrakes are definitely not my thing - I nearly crashed into a minibus at a crossing :) 
Comments: 6
Kinki Sharyo #6073
17 february 2010 - Helwan, tram depot. And into this mess came this tram - we decided to leave the accident site and drive off towards Helwan city centre.
Comments: 5
Kinki Sharyo #6103
17 february 2010 - Helwan, tram depot. The driver organised an impromptu parade in front of the tram depot, which was such a state secret that we weren't allowed to enter.... Sadly, in order to get the vehicles side by side, car 6103 had to use the crossover outside the gate. I can't honestly remember whether the catenary above the crossover was sagging badly or whether it was there at all, but you can see the result of that manoeuvre. After the old banger in the EMPC film studios, this was the second car in Egypt to be broken in our honour...
Comments: 3
Kinki Sharyo #6133
17 february 2010 - Helwan, tram depot. To continue our little story from yesterday - the friendly tram driver told us that he's just leaving the depot to make a run to Helwan. He disappeared inside the shed and brought out another train for us, including the crew (a conductor in each car). But he didn't stop there...
Kinki Sharyo #6005
17 february 2010 - Helwan (EG) - inside Egyptian trams (1). The luxury interior of a Helwan tram. Now I understand why people think a Konstal 105N is comfortable!
Comments: 3
Kinki Sharyo #6130
17 february 2010 - Helwan, tram depot. Despite the fact, that the system is in a terrible state, the security of the depot is compromised by two groups - scrap metal hunters and tram fans from Europe... After walking 3km to the tram depot, some guy appeared out of nowhere. He spoke decent English and we asked him whether he could get us past the guys at the gate. Sadly - that didn't work. Instead, we got to know a very nice tram driver, who led us to a local shop where we could buy water. While other group members were giving away free English lessons, I strayed aside and took this shot through the fence. Next to the scrapyard pictured, there was a few tens of trams standing in the shed. Generally speaking, there were enough trams in the depots to guarantee a 7.5 minute frequency on both routes. Sadly - the number of cars working on this day was around 5 or so, and the running frequency was determined by the mood of the depot crew.
Comments: 2
Kinki Sharyo #6006
17 february 2010 - Helwan, terminus El Tabbin. As you can see by the positioning of the vehicle, the tracks in Helwan haven't seen a tampering machine since they were built in 1981. We are standing near the Nile, next to a metallurgical institute - the tram probably used to carry many of its workers. Sadly, I don't know what we did to piss off the crew of the tram, but they left before we had a chance to take pictures of the tram and jump back on board for the return journey. We did the three kilometres back to the depot on foot. Of course with the exception of Dave, who always does his own thing...
Comments: 2
Kinki Sharyo #6006
17 february 2010 - Helwan, El Sarf El Sehy. As we were the only passengers on board car number 6006, we asked the crew to stop for photos a few times along the way. Here the tram has already left the centre of Helwan and has stopped next to the depot gates, located amongst fields.
Comments: 3
Kinki Sharyo #6006
17 february 2010 - Helwan, Emtedad Atef El Barquqi. There is a vegetable and fruit market on this street, alongside the tracks. As the frequency of the tram is defined by a complex interaction of prayer times, accidents, vehicle condition and - last but not least - the mood of the drivers, the rubbish from the market is thrown straight onto the tracks. On this momentous occasion of a tram passing along the street, some workers got to work shovelling the rubbish from the tracks to let the tram get through. I'd rather not mention the smell... All in all, if you ever wondered what hell for trams looks like - it is in Helwan...
Comments: 24
Kinki Sharyo #6006
16 february 2010 - Helwan (Egypt). Helwan has a large fleet of these 1980s, single-ended Japanese-built trams, very similar in design to Cairo and Heliopolis tramways. Here the similarity ends, however - Cairo and Heliopolis trams, although well worn, are at least kept in reasonably good condition. Most Helwan trams never leave the depot, I suspect. Despite being part of CTA Cairo, everything at Helwan is in an appalling state of repair - you can see here that, maybe twenty years ago, this was a fine, modern system with raised platforms, passenger shelters and high-speed catenary suspension for the overhead wires. It isn't vandalism that has caused this - just neglect. A decent light rail system left to rot - what a waste!
Comments: 8
Kinki Sharyo #6006
17 february 2010 - Helwan (Egypt) - El Harery Street. The Helwan tramway was built in 1981 and looks like it has had no maintenance or repairs since then, so is now slowly dying. Maybe one tram every THREE HOURS runs (usually empty) along the shaky tracks on two lines crossing the city. More pictures soon!
Comments: 35
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