 By then a line across the Nile Delta from a junction north of Talkha on the line to Damietta had reached Biyala.By 1898 this reached Kafr el-Sheikh, completing a more direct route between Damietta and Alexandria.An important extension along the west bank of the Suez Canal linking Nifisha with Ismaïlia, Al Qantarah West and Port Said was completed in 1904.