The World Bank has approved a $440-million loan to modernise signalling and upgrade track on 763 km of Egypt's 5 000 km rail network, the bank said in a statement.
Egyptian National Railways (ENR) will put $241-million into the project on the Cairo-Giza-Beni Suef section of the network, bringing the total cost to $681-million, the World Bank said.
Obstacles faced by ENR showed there was "margin for improving its performance, namely in the realms of operations, cost recovery, maintenance, and customer service", it said.
Egypt has focused heavily on investment in transport and urban development infrastructure, seeking development finance to help fund the projects.