The government plans to replace the colorful trams that run on one of the city's lines with a partially elevated tram line, which has angered Alexandrians, for whom the 163-year-old line is "a heritage, and not just a means of transport," Nahla Saleh, a local urban planning researcher, told AFP.
Along the Egyptian Mediterranean coast, the oldest tramway in Africa and the Middle East is still running for a few weeks before being discontinued, which, according to Alexandrians, is part of the urban upheaval that is causing their city to lose its identity.
Inaugurated in 1863, this tramway is one of the oldest in the world and one of the few to use double-decker cars.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, it helped to make the city a vibrant metropolis, home to significant European diasporas and a distinct cosmopolitan culture.
Today, young and old Egyptians flock to take one last ride before the trams stop running in April.
Much more than a tram
As a locomotive noisily enters the old El-Raml station, travelers and visitors lean out of the huge windows to admire the historic neo-Venetian buildings overlooking them.
"We are not against progress ," psychologist and cultural writer Mona Lamloum told AFP.
She and other Alexandrians agree that the tram needs to be renovated : inside the blue, hand-lettered body, dirt covers every surface. Underfoot, the rubber flooring is torn and littered with debris.
"We have simply had bad experiences with everything they call 'progress' , which has become synonymous with destruction," Lamloum said.
In recent years, development projects in Egypt's second city have razed historic parks and, most shockingly for residents, privatized and obstructed much of its Mediterranean coastline.
In the heart of Alexandria
For more than 160 years, the tramway has crossed the heart of Alexandria, on an 11-kilometer stretch that serves many schools and the city's main universities.
The new project, led by Egyptian and international companies including Systra, Hyundai and Hitachi, promises to double the speed and triple the capacity but is causing great concern among Alexandrians who fear that the tree-lined road will be replaced by unsightly concrete pillars.
Before the first phase of suspension, the Ministry of Transport stated that the new project was "the only solution to the city's traffic problems" .
Residents like Saleh and Lamloum disagree, saying the government's plans make the city more car-dependent and worsen traffic congestion.
Already, as many students rely on the tram, the city has shifted the schedules of schools and universities to compensate for the partial closure.
"Traffic is getting worse, people can no longer get around, and we've already lost the urban train ," Saleh said, referring to another project that has been under construction for two years, the new Alexandria metro line.
"Moreover, its slowness has always been an advantage ," he added, because it guaranteed the safety of " the most vulnerable in society: children and the elderly."
Hisham Abdelwahab, 64, a retired science teacher, has been taking the tram since he was a child.
"I don't want him to go fast, I like to watch the world go by ," he told AFP on a bench at the station.
"Our parents didn't hesitate to let us take the tram alone. Now that I have a car, I like to leave it in the garage and take the tram."
When the next tram arrives, the upper deck fills with a string of schoolgirls vying for the spot by the window closest to the sea breeze.
The old tramway and the sea -
"This tramway is part of our heritage ," said Abdelwahab, a sentiment shared by many residents of the city.
Mahmoud Bassam, 24, an engineering student, traveled to Alexandria solely to take the tram "since our tram in Cairo was discontinued ," he told AFP.
With the controversial construction of a series of bridges and the widening of streets completed in 2020, the historic Heliopolis district in Cairo lost its last tram lines, as well as many of its trees.
"Now the same thing is happening here ," laments Mahmoud Bassam.
Many Alexandrians feel this loss, which adds to the loss of other elements of their most precious heritage.
"It's like the sea. We used to take long walks along the corniche, but now we're losing both the sea and the tramway ," said Abdelwahab.
Alongside the tramway, much of Alexandria's iconic Corniche is now hidden behind bridges, private businesses, and seaside dining areas.
A study by the social research center Human and the City predicted that by 2024, more than half of the city's Mediterranean coastline would disappear from view.
Four-lane highways now dominate long stretches of the coastline, where the iconic image of fishermen perched above the waves is becoming increasingly rare.
For many, the seafront that Lebanese singer Fairouz immortalized in 1961 by singing "the coast of Alexandria, coast of love" no longer exists.
"Today, all you see is concrete ," laments Lamloum.
Saleh laments the fact that the city may lose its charm to sprawling urban expansion.
"Tourists loved coming to see the tram and sitting by the sea, why take away those two pleasures?"
