ENR head resigns, prosecution detains drivers and assistants pending further inquiry into Friday collision: The Head of the Egyptian National Railways (ENR), Medhat Shousha, was relieved from his duties on Sunday, Transport Minister Hisham Arafat told the press, according to Reuters. The minister told talking heads that Shousha had submitted his resignation last Thursday, before the accident, but that he signed it on Sunday. The announcement came after prosecutors ordered the detention of the train drivers and other staff involved in the fatal collision near Alexandria over the weekend that claimed more than 40 lives. Investigators have taken urine and blood samples from one of the drivers to test for the presence of banned substances.

Railway lines have not been “truly developed” since 1969, Arafat had said yesterday, but around EGP 6 bn worth of upgrade work is already underway and should conclude by 2019. The government is also in the process of acquiring 1,000 new locomotives, he said. China could be key to modernizing and developing the sector as a whole, Mohamed Shehata, the head of the Egyptian Transport Association, an NGO, tells Xinhua. “China does not decide the companies that will carry out the projects. It also provides finance through generous loans from Chinese banks… The whole network and trains should be modernized and I believe that we need a pioneer partner like China to make a leap in our railway system,” Shehata says.

Separately, six Health Ministry medics were reprimanded and punished by being “transferred to the western Siwa oasis” after taking a “selfie” by the deadly train wreck. It was “inappropriate conduct,” says the Health Ministry’s director of emergency services, according to the AFP.

Scapegoating following a train crash is just business as usual: The accident topped the conversation among opinion writers yesterday, with many choosing to focus on scapegoating. It has become business as usual to fire or arrest Transport Ministry officials following a train accident, writes Abbas El Tarabeely for Al Masry Al Youm. This, however, has done nothing to help reduce accidents or improve the railway network, making it a futile PR exercise. Al Shorouk’s Emad El Din Hussein concurs, stating that an overhaul of the entire system is what’s needed. Meanwhile, Suleiman Gouda takes the “off with their heads” argument to whole new levels, suggesting in AMAY that we should consider just surrendering the ministry to outside experts since we have failed so bad at running the railway systems. Separately, Hussam El Sokary takes to Al Shorouk to demand a detailed accounting of the bns of loans that Egypt has borrowed to fix the railway lines.