There are many more trains running than tourists can buy actually buy tickets for at the ticket office.  This is for security reasons.  You will only be able to buy tickets for those trains that have security guards on them; these are the express trains and they have both first class and second class air conditioned carriages.  It does not mean that you cannot travel on the ordinary trains, (highlighted in blue) because you can buy a ticket from the conductor when you are on board but Europeans are discouraged from travelling on these local trains.  Ordinary trains have second and third class carriages but third class carriages should only really be used by the experienced traveller although it can be a very interesting way to see and meet local people.

By European standards the cost of train travel is very inexpensive.  It only costs between 50 LE and 90 LE (£5 - £9) to make the whole journey between Luxor and Cairo travelling first class with a reclining seat in an air-conditioned carriage.  Passengers with student cards get a one third reduction in this cost.  Tickets on the de-luxe sleeper trains, which are run by a private company, are much more expensive and have to be paid for in foreign currency.  Tickets cost £34 for shared occupancy and £45 for single occupancy. 

The overnight express trains have carriages that go under the name of Nefertiti which have six-seat compartments.  Tickets are inexpensive but the six-seat carriages can be noisy, crowded and uncomfortable but they are ideal for the budget traveller and save the cost of a hotel room for the night. Few passengers ever have the amount of room allowed to the passenger shown below.

Getting a ticket in Cairo can take a very long time and involves a lot of shouting, pushing and shoving so if you are nervous about getting a ticket yourself, ask a member of the hotel staff if they will get one for you.  This will cost you the price of the ticket plus about and another 20 LE.  (You will most likely be told that the ticket seller had to be given baksheesh and then there is the baksheesh for the person who went).  It is a small sum to avoid considerable hassle.  Buying tickets in Luxor is not so difficult but it can still be very time consuming.

The ticket system operates on a fixed number of tickets being allocated for each section of the journey and when these tickets have been sold you will be told that the train is full.  This is often not the case.  If you want to buy a ticket from Luxor to Cairo or Cairo to Luxor and are told that there are no seats available then ask for a ticket to or from Aswan, because it is likely that there are still some of these left.  It is the same train making the same journey and it will stop at Luxor, but the ticket will come from a different allocation.  The ticket will cost of little more but the amount is insignificant.  There are no actual return tickets but it is possible to buy a ticket for your return journey when you buy the outgoing one. 

If all the first class tickets have gone then buy a second class one for an air-conditioned carriage.  The only drawback is that the seats are slightly smaller and the toilets have a tendency to be upsetting for the faint hearted, but you can always walk back to the first class toilets if necessary.  Remember to take toilet paper with you on your journey because there will be none is the cubicle.

The journey between Luxor and Cairo is very long.  It takes about ten hours and is known to sometimes take more than twelve, so you will need to have food and drink with you.  There are meals available on the train but they usually only consist of a sandwich and a bun so it pays to bring something with you even is it is only packets of crisps and biscuits.  Hot tea and coffee is available throughout the journey and costs very little.