Book your Train Ticket to Hell - Online!?
Posted on | September 16, 2006 |
As I was booking a ticket to Alexandria today, on the Egyptian Trains to Hell, I saw a little note printed on the ticket which I had not seen before. No, they it was not written one way ticket to hell, the print mentioned the Egyptian National Railways website and also stated very happily, “Book your ticket online”. I thought, it was about time, and I was willing to give this disaster a try.
I came home, entered the website (which was typical Egyptian in every way) and then clicked on “Reservation Services”.
Boom that was it, I went to a page that said, “More Information to T.B.A”, not to forget that the page was a static html page. I thought, typical Egyptian.
However, I said let me take a look at the website, and it was nothing but a joke, A - Z. If you are feeling bored, then give the website a chance. And don’t forget to read the “Chairman Speech”.
Ooops, yeah one more thing, the .eg consipiracy strikes again. If you try to access http://egyptrail.gov.eg instead of http://www.egyptrail.gov.eg, it will not work. :) Enjoy.
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9 Responses to “Book your Train Ticket to Hell - Online!?”
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November 6th, 2006 @ 3:26 am
Words form here from the wonderful Egypt you didn`t take time to experience….
Hi there…Iam an egyptian boy I have just read your blog entery…I have tried what you try ((i mean entering the railway website)) i want to clearify somethings to you,you didn`t make mind of it.
I accept your oponion as it is but you must not talk so sharply as this…tell you what? the site you didn`t like is not in work now it is just a trials to run it…also the computers of the Egyptian railways in not connected to it.You didn`t think about Microsoft servers that go off for hours for unkown causes you also didn`t think of your ISP which may cut off the service for unexplained causes.
Just make mind of what you sy and about waht you talk.
November 6th, 2006 @ 11:44 pm
Hello Ahmed,
Just for the Info.. I have been experiencing the wonderful Egypt all my life (27 years to be accurate).
Let’s be realistic. If you know anything about web applications, and how to run such stuff, you wouldn’t be writing such amazing words.
And why the hell should they be running on MS servers? Wake up and smell the coffee… take a look around you… and quit hiding like an ostrich.
I have never heard about a railway service running servers which go down every now and then.
August 28th, 2007 @ 4:01 am
hi all,
have a deep breath, and stop talking about something in the past, because once you get into web page, you will get a surprise, it is a welcome phrase says :
Under Update
Will be ONLINE soon.
so, we r waiting and waiting and waiting,,, hope the future is better
bye
September 10th, 2007 @ 1:03 am
It’s a hopeless case Ahmed. Been using the ENR for the past 12 years and it keeps getting worse.
November 20th, 2007 @ 1:18 pm
Dear JPierre,
Using the ENR for the last 12 years makes you hero! Please try Sudan, Smalia or Eithiopia once for a 30 minutes trip and you will thank God for the ENR!
I’m not defending ENR, or I’m not supporting your opinion but ENR unfortunatly is not the first topic on the list of many cabinets ruled the country plus the huge decrease in train tickets prices because lots of poor pepole travel daily from near towns and small cities to Cairo every single day and sometimes by sitting on top of the train car to avoid paying cheap tickets and perfering to risk their own lives for that!
I read in the news papers, that there will be some new trains (towing engine cars and train carrages) soon!
If you compare travelling by car, bus or even plane to Alex. and back you will find the easist, safest, cheapest and more suitable is trains by all means regardless of any other new modern technologies implementations.
The ENR employees are totally goverenmental berocrates that have been working in ENR before our grand fathers even were born! and for them the world stopped there and will never change until they are dead!
My final recommendation, wait and pray for a real change and thank god that you survived all that time!
Lucky you, I hope I can make 6 continous years only!
Best regards for all,
Tarek
December 9th, 2007 @ 2:20 pm
Dear all,
I’m becoming a frequent (flyer) or passenger of ENR as every week I’m going to Alex. and back in the weekend and after a while I can say that the best train is the Spanish (Stallion) until further notice. The car wagons are better from inside, AC is very cold, seats are wider, more comfortable and the whole wagon has less noise than the other French Turbine Train from Hell!
Regards,
Tarek
January 8th, 2008 @ 3:11 am
Hey JPierre :)
I just wanted to say that I found that post hilarious !:)
Well, I’m not being offensive here, but really , the whole E-government project in Egypt is a great failure, starting from this railways website to many others, check this out for example
http://birdflu.sis.gov.eg/html/index.htm
What are they thinking ?
And about the railways to hell, I don’t really know if the Egyptian railways are that bad?, because I haven’t taken any trains anywhere in Egypt! :), I prefer to drive alone in my car !
I’ve been living in Egypt my entire life “21 years”, It’s a great country, but has lots of things to be fixed !!
Thanks for your time !
August 8th, 2008 @ 6:53 pm
well,
I guess its very nice to say your opinion freely & openly, but just don’t be offensive,…& if someone lives in a country for 17 years”Jean-Pierre”…….I guess this person would be living in this country because he loves it…or he finds something especial about it, so…Simply we have in egypt something especial & good after all!!
By the way, they have a service to get the tickets in Cairo from some call centers (what we call “central”)….& from some Metro station…or the subway….so u could easily ask about them,….& it has to be before 4:00 pm!!
Things will just get better day after day….someday in Egypt we didn’t think that we could have subway service……& now we have good one for years that we take it for granted to be even better……good mobile & land line services & network…..electricity that never goes out…..& more….so Egypt gets better day after day…
take it easy guys…..life is good :)
August 8th, 2008 @ 7:44 pm
Thanks for the message Hossam, but just for the record, I am EGYPTIAN!
Oh, this post is ever since 2006. Quite old huh? I have been using the ENR since 1994, as I used to study in Alex. When it started getting from bad to worse, I have finally decided drive to Alex.