Parties, MPs call for Kamel Al-Wazir’s dismissal after Al-Ayyat train crash
Political parties and members of Egypt’s House of Representatives and Senate have called on Monday for Transport Minister Kamel Al-Wazir’s dismissal or resignation, holding him politically responsible for Sunday’s train collision in Al-Ayyat, Giza governorate, which killed seven people and injured 125.
Their demands also included an independent investigation that examines not only the immediate causes of the crash but also wider failures in railway safety, operations and maintenance.
The calls followed a collision on Sunday between train No. 134, traveling from Giza to Fayoum, and train No. 2010, traveling from Cairo to Aswan. The first train struck the second from behind between Kafr Ammar and Al-Raqqa stations in Ayat. Four carriages derailed and overturned.
The latest count by the Ministry of Health stated Sunday that seven people had been killed and 125 injured, including the driver of the first train.
The Egyptian Social Democratic Party called for the minister’s dismissal and the formation of an independent investigative committee comprising specialists from outside the Ministry of Transport and the Egyptian National Railways Authority. It also called for the findings to be made public and for previous train accidents that have not led to clear accountability to be revisited.
The party further proposed setting up an independent regulatory body for the transport sector, separate from the ministry it would oversee, to investigate accidents, conduct technical assessments and publish its findings. It also urged the Central Auditing Organization to review loans taken out by the transport sector, how the funds were spent and the returns they generated. The party also demanded urgent and fair compensation for the families of those killed and injured.
The party cited the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics’ (CAPMAS) 2025 bulletin, which recorded 535 deaths and 590 injuries in railway accidents, arguing that the figures reflected persistent failures in accountability.
It also pointed to remarks made by the transport minister in March 2026 that the ministry had borrowed approximately $18 billion to finance its projects. The party called for an assessment of how this financing had affected railway safety, rather than judging progress solely by the scale of projects and investments.
The Civil Democratic Movement, meanwhile, said the minister’s dismissal was long overdue, calling on him to leave office and accept political responsibility for recurring transport accidents since he took over the ministry in 2019.
The movement cited previous incidents, including the 2021 train collision in Tahta, which it said killed 19 people and injured more than 185, and the accident in Toukh, which it said left 11 people dead and 98 injured.
The movement also called for an independent technical committee comprising experts from outside the ministry, and demanded the disclosure of how funds allocated to railway development and road safety had been spent, particularly on signaling and maintenance. It demanded urgent compensation for the families of those killed and injured.
The movement stressed that political accountability should not be postponed pending the completion of technical investigations technical investigations, and that accountability should extend beyond train drivers and signaling workers.
In a similar statement, the Socialist Popular Alliance Party called for the transport minister’s dismissal and political and administrative accountability. It argued that recurring accidents reflect systemic failures in management, maintenance and oversight, rather than isolated human errors.
The party called for a comprehensive, independent investigation that includes senior officials responsible for operational safety. It also urged the government to reprioritize public spending, putting safety measures and essential infrastructure improvements ahead of other projects.
At the parliamentary level, MP Freddy El-Bayadi of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party submitted an urgent briefing request to the prime minister and transport minister about the accident. He called for the minister’s dismissal and the formation of an independent technical committee made up of specialists from outside the ministry and the railway authority to investigate the collision, assess safety and operational systems, and make its findings public.
MP Ehab Mansour, deputy head of the House of Representatives’ Manpower Committee, also submitted an urgent statement to the transport minister, questioning the effectiveness of training, maintenance and monitoring systems at the railway authority. He said that train accidents had increased by 64% over the past five years. He also called for the minister’s dismissal and said he should be held politically responsible.
MP Reham Abdel Nabi announced that she had filed an interpellation against the minister over recurring railway accidents, while MP Maha Abdel Nasser called for his dismissal, a transparent investigation and accountability for all officials found to have been negligent.
The Justice Party also announced that its MPs, Hossam El-Khasht, Hussein Haridy and Fatma Adel, had submitted parliamentary oversight requests seeking answers from the Ministry of Transport and the railway authority about the circumstances of the accident, compliance with safety procedures, and the effectiveness of signaling, control and maintenance systems. The party said accountability should go beyond identifying the immediate cause of the collision to examine the performance of administrative and executive officials and their ability to identify risks and prevent accidents.
During a phone interview with TV host Amr Adib, MP Hussein Haridy called on the transport minister to resign and accept political responsibility. The Awareness Party, led by Basel Adel, also called for his resignation, arguing that the success of development projects should be measured by their impact on public safety and accident prevention, not simply by the amount spent. It also called for the investigation’s findings to be made public and for officials responsible for any shortcomings to be held accountable.
House of Representatives Transport and Communications Committee Chairman and Nation’s Future Party central secretary for transport and communications Waheed Qarqar announced that House Speaker Hesham Badawi had approved an urgent committee meeting on Tuesday to discuss the implications of the Ayyat train crash.
Egypt has spent years upgrading its transport network and modernizing trains and railway lines under a plan that involved investments of approximately 225 billion Egyptian pounds (about $4.15 billion) between 2014 and 2024, in an effort to address shortcomings exposed by recurring train accidents.