Watani Sunday Published by Watani Printing and Publishing Corporation 19 July 2015 27, Abdel-Khaleq Tharwat St. 12 Abib (Apip) 1731 Cairo - Egypt 3 Shawwal 1436 202-23936051 Tel Fax 202-23935946 Editor-in-chief Managing Editor Issue 753 Website: www.wataninet.com Year 15 Email:
[email protected] Youssef Sidhom Samia Sidhom Editorial Problems on hold And you call this a taxi service? Youssef Sidhom Taxis are among the basic utilities that reflect the level of advancement and discipline of capitals and towns around the world, and are used not only by locals but by visitors and tourists as well. The quality of the service is measured by the effort it takes to get a taxi, the condition of the vehicle, the efficiency of the driver, and the tariff. With this in mind, it is with many regrets that I broach the topic of taxis in Egypt— and in Cairo in specific—a topic that has long been placed on hold. The substandard taxi service in the country has for decades on end continued to project a miserable image of Egypt; it was even a main factor why Egypt lost the chance to host the 2010 Mondiale, the World Cup football games; South Africa was awarded that honour instead. Cairo’s taxis have since seen a huge overhaul. New white vehicles replaced the old, dilapidated black ones; modern metres were installed in the new taxis; and a new tariff that was more advantageous to taxi operators and fair to passengers was set. But this did not work to improve the service which remained shoddy and unreliable, still far removed from the superior level of similar services in capitals of the modern world and in many of those of our Arab neighbouring States in the Downtown Cairo Gulf.