Transportation was topic du jour on the airwaves last night: In amongst the blanket coverage of a ministerial railway meeting and a marathon 32-minute interview on electric cars courtesy of Lobna Assal, El Hekaya’s Amr Adib picked up a fairly unusual parliamentary request from President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and we got the latest on last week’s “train ticket incident.”

But first: President tells House to up its criticism of the government: El Sisi has called on MPs to start more actively grilling government officials in public hearings, El Hekaya’s Amr Adib said (watch, runtime: 3:39). “Officials who are questioned should not take this personally … we’re working within a national context,” El Sisi said at the inauguration of state-owned El Nasr For Intermediate Chemicals’ new factory. Adib spoke to Deputy House Speaker Soliman Wahdan and asked him for the rundown on the different levels of questioning (questions, early day motions and interpellations) (watch, runtime: 12:29). Wahdan said an elected representative is authorized to use the highest level of questioning — an interpellation — provided they have evidence to back their claims and permission from the speaker and his two deputies.

Plans to manufacture electric cars domestically: Al Hayah Al Youm’s Lobna Assal dedicated a lengthy segment to an interview with the Military Production Ministry’s undersecretary, Mohamed Sherine, to discuss plans to manufacture electric vehicles domestically (watch, runtime: 31: 59). Sherine told Assal the ministry had decided to focus on making “cars for the future” rather than build capabilities in manufacturing traditional ones. Two key agreements were signed with China’s Foton Motor earlier this year: One to purchase 50 public buses to operate in urban areas, and another on the sidelines of El Sisi’s participation in China’s Belt and Road Forum to manufacture 2000 buses in Egypt, starting with 450 buses in 2020, Sherine said.

El Sisi, Madbouly, El Said, El Wazir sit down to review transport projects: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi was briefed on the progress of projects to reform Egypt’s railway and metro in a meeting with Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly, Planning Minister Hala El Said, and Transport Minister Kamel El Wazir. El Sisi and high-level officials also met with top executives from US-based Progress Rail Locomotives, which is supplying Egypt with 50 new locomotives and repairing 50 old ones. The meetings were widely noted by talk show hosts, including Assal (watch, runtime: 2:25), Hona Al Asema’s Reham Ibrahim (watch runtime 1:17 and runtime: 1:14), and Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hossary (watch, runtime: 2:36).

Prosecutor’s office latest statement on the “train ticket incident”: A train conductor who forced last Monday two street vendors to jump from a moving train, resulting in the death of one of them, will face charges, Adib reports (watch, runtime: 7:22). The story is making international headlines, as we note in Egypt in the News, below.