Mersa Matruh

According to the Thomas Cook timetable, and also an Egyptian web site there is a daily train from Mersa Matruh to the Libyan border town of Al Sallum.

However, I have been looking at the google earth maps of the coastal area and can see no trace of a railway beyond Mersa, although the railway station in Mersa (direct trains to Cairo and Alexandria) is easily seen.

I assume therefore that this "daily train" must be a bus?

Does anyone know different?

I have not yet detected any actually completed railway in Libya.
http://www.seat61.com/Egypt.htm#Cairo%2 ... a%20Matruh

I think I have followed the line west of Mersa from where it branches off a few kilometres to the east. Google earth shows the line of the track for some distance but there comes a place where the line seems to be covered in sand and is no longer traceable. I conclude that the line is not in use and is not being maintained. The timetable I can see is for 2003 and it wouldn't take long for the sand to blow over the track.

If the Libyan railway is ever built it is supposed to reach the border at Al Sallum (As Saloum) and the Egyptian Railways are supposed to upgrade the line to and beyond Mersa Matruh.

This UNHCR map from last month still shows the railway as existing, with the route in its entirety:

http://www.ecoi.net/file_upload/1226_13 ... arch11.pdf

Bing Maps (Microsoft) has the railway traced on their map, but the resolution on the Navteq imagery of the area is far too bad to actually see anything.

The railway station in Salloum is to the northwest of the town. In Google Earth you can see a train parked there with one of the cars looking like it's derailed.

kato wrote:This UNHCR map from last month still shows the railway as existing, with the route in its entirety:

http://www.ecoi.net/file_upload/1226_13 ... arch11.pdf

Bing Maps (Microsoft) has the railway traced on their map, but the resolution on the Navteq imagery of the area is far too bad to actually see anything.

The railway station in Salloum is to the northwest of the town. In Google Earth you can see a train parked there with one of the cars looking like it's derailed.

Thanks. The UNHCR map shows roads in red. Whether there is a rail line on it is unclear to me.

Ah, yes. The station is right outside the town. I thought it might be attached to the port. But of course it was largely a military railway, mainly aimed at supplying the Allied forces in eastern Libya (Cyrenaica). It looks as though it once crossed the road at the end of the station. The curved line of buildings suggests a line might have run past them as a goods area.

I haven't detected any trace of the former extension into Libya. However, the reference I have seen says that the line to Salloum was in fact a branch so the junction would have been some way back. But the google earth map disappears the line again and I can't go back to the junction unless I could follow the line.

I wonder if UNHCR transported refugees by rail from Salloum, or from Mersa Matrouh.

Here's the excerpt from the UNHCR map showing the railroad:



It's the dashed line that runs south of the road. It goes straight west from Mersah Matruh, climbing a small plateau, then following it before it curves north to Salloum near the border (under the yellow arrow). The extension towards Libya, if it exists, would probably be around the area where the Salloum branch curves north, quite a bit south of Salloum.

kato wrote:Here's the excerpt from the UNHCR map showing the railroad:



It's the dashed line that runs south of the road. It goes straight west from Mersah Matruh, climbing a small plateau, then following it before it curves north to Salloum near the border (under the yellow arrow). The extension towards Libya, if it exists, would probably be around the area where the Salloum branch curves north, quite a bit south of Salloum.

I suspect the google earth picture was made during a sand storm.