Before It Vanishes: Alexandria Artists Race to Capture the Tram One Last Time
With the Alexandria tram set to cease operations completely on April 1st, one foundation organised a final journey to photograph and sketch its stations, carriages, and the people who made it run. The result is a visual archive of a 160-year-old institution about to disappear.
The Raqouda Foundation for Art and Heritage organized a field tour titled “Forgotten Stories of Alexandria: Tram Stations.” It combined photography, sketching workshops, and storytelling about the tram’s stations. The experience brought together art and history, seeking to revive the city’s visual memory and document one of its most significant heritage landmarks.
Photographing the Tram Stations
Hani Al-Mustafa, a photographer and trainer at the Raqouda Foundation, explained that the tram station photography tour focused on several aspects. These included documenting the visible form of each station, its name, and the tram carriages. Participants worked on selecting angles, light, and shadow to reflect each person’s visual perspective. The tour also captured the personal dimension tied to individual memories: a specific spot inside a carriage, a waiting station, a street vendor.
Al-Mustafa noted that there was also attention to the human element: the drivers, the conductors, the switch operators. The tour documented life around the stations as well, including houses, buildings, and plants along the tracks. Participants were guided in choosing the best angles and techniques, whether using cameras or phones.
Engineer Mariam Asim, who led the sketching workshop, saw the tour as an opportunity to document memories accumulated over many years. The tram, she said, is part of Alexandria’s identity. Its current form, with its colored carriages in blue, yellow, and red, is part of the city’s character.
The Tram: Alexandria’s Symbol
Alexandrian artist Khaled Hanou stated that whenever he painted a scene of Alexandria, it was essential for the Raml Tram to appear as a key landmark in the city’s history. He noted that the tram’s age, exceeding 160 years, has made it a witness to generations of memories.
“The tram is not just a means of transportation,” Hanou said. “That is an inaccurate perception some people have when discussing its modernization. It is often understood as merely increasing speed or passenger numbers. But it is, in fact, part of Alexandria’s heritage. Foreign tourists and Egyptian day-trippers ride it specifically to see the city’s landmarks from its windows.”
He recalled his own childhood and youth memories. He relied on the tram to go to school and later to university. Although he lived in the Hadra district, he would walk to the Ibrahimiyya station to take the tram for his daily journey back and forth. It was not a short commute, but he enjoyed it. It gave him time to observe the city and its people, to sketch, to find inspiration, and to read books during the ride.
Opposition to Modernization
Artist Khaled Hanou pointed out that Alexandrians consider the tram a significant landmark. This makes them cautious about the idea of “change.” He rejected the use of the term “modernisation” if it merely meant updating the carriages or tracks. What is happening, he believes, is a complete transformation affecting one of the city’s most prominent features.
He called for looking at the example of trams in European countries. Alexandria preceded most of them in establishing its tram system, with only England having an earlier one. Those countries preserve their trams in their traditional form and structure. He expressed regret over Alexandria’s loss of many of its distinctive landmarks in previous projects. He considered the tram to be the last of these prominent features. Changing its appearance, he said, would make the city resemble any other, without a clear visual identity.
Complete Suspension of the Tram
It is scheduled that the Raml Tram line will cease operations completely on April 1st. This follows its partial suspension between the Victoria and Mustafa Kamel stations since the beginning of last February. The Ministry of Transport announced this in an official statement after a visit by Lieutenant General Kamel El-Wazir, Minister of Transport, in early March to inspect the progress of the rehabilitation and modernization project. Development work has already begun on the section affected by the partial suspension.
Since the suspension was announced, many Alexandrians have been documenting their memories with the tram by taking souvenir photos of its carriages and stations. They have also been using it more frequently in their daily travels, a final farewell before its complete suspension and the disappearance of its current form, passed down through generations. It is expected to return with a new look after its modernization and route updates.
