Travelling to Aswan and stations in between such as Edfu and Kom Ombo, is a good way of visiting the historical sites without having to travel with the convoy.  The journey to Aswan takes about three hours and is interesting as you can see from the train window how the style of architecture changes and becomes more Nubian as you move south.  You can go down there on the morning train and return on the evening one.  It is easy to arrange taxis from the stations to where you want to go.

Train times can be found in the tables above.  Tickets for many of the trains travelling south have to bought on board so do not worry if you cannot buy a ticket at the ticket office. The cost for the express trains is 40 LE (£4) for first class and 20 LE (£2) for second class seats.