**#6 Railway to buy 1,300 cars from Transmashholding under EGP 22 bn contract: The Egyptian National Railways (ENR) will buy 1,300 railcars from Russia’s Transmashholding under a final contract signed yesterday, according to a Cabinet statement. The Russian company will set up shop in Egypt maintain the rolling stock and train maintenance laborers for 15 years. The two sides are currently in talks over the details of a separate maintenance agreement. Cabinet had approved in August ENR’s agreement with Transmashholding. The agreement is set to be financed through a loan by a Russian-Hungarian banking consortium. Egypt will pay a total of EGP 22 bn to buy the cars and will receive the first batch within 14 months and the last car within 40 months from the start of manufacturing.

Transport Minister Hisham Arafat was all over the airwaves last night to discuss the agreement, which he told Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 5:33 and runtime: 5:29) as a core element of the ministry’s aim to complete a significant overhaul of the railways by the end of 2020. Arafat also phoned into Yahduth fi Masr to talk about the agreement and its fine print (watch, runtime: 5:59).