Cairo's new monorail glides above a city struggling below

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Cairo has inaugurated a $4.5 billion monorail system to improve its urban transport amid widespread public dissatisfaction with the city's aging infrastructure. The project has been criticized for straining Egypt's finances while benefiting limited segments of the population.

Cairo's new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and ageing buses' exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The $4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt's most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticised for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country's 109 million people. "It feels like you're in a different country," said Ramy Sayed, 44, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train.