The Pakistan Railway passenger traffic up and down country for this Eid has considerably dropped due to security concerns and sabotage threats. The PR had announced to run five special trains between various cities on September 29 and 30 as thousands of people including businessmen, workers and officials travel to their homes to celebrate Eid with their families.
The Railways had started sale of tickets for the special trains from September 20 but when this scribe visited the Railway Reservation Centre at Lahore's Railway Headquarters on Monday, seats were still vacant in all special and normal up and down country trains.
When asked about the tempo of sale of the tickets, a senior supervisor remarked "you can yourself see the thin presence of the buyers on the windows." There were many people who had come to cancel their bookings.
Railways had decided to run three special Eid trains between Karachi and Peshawar, Karachi and Sargodha and Quetta and Peshawar on September 29 while two special Eid trains were to be run between Lahore and Rawalpindi, and Rawalpindi and Lahore on September 30.
Talking to Business Recorder, General Manager Pakistan Railways Syed Nasir Zaidi said PR had taken special measures at the crowded railway stations for security checks, patrolling and protection of the railway lines. He said the Railways will run pilot engines ahead of every passenger train on the track between Balochistan and Kashmore on a regular basis to avoid any untoward incident.
He said though the passengers are genuinely concerned about their security, yet Pakistan Railways is the only dependable mode of travel for long distances. He assured that the government would take all possible measures for safe journey and security of the passengers.
About increase in Railway fares, Zaidi said the Railways will have to bear an additional burden of Rs 450 million due to recent increase in diesel prices, besides the PR had to pay more than Rs 4 billion every year to its pensioners. He said performance of PR would improve after induction of 75 locomotives into its fleet from China. He said PR has also issued tender for the purchase of 200 passenger coaches and 800 wagons of goods trains.
The passenger traffic comprises 50 percent of the railway's total revenue. Pakistan Railways carries 75 million passengers annually and daily operates 228 mail, express and passenger trains. The Freight Business Unit, with 12,000 personnel, operates over 200 freight stations on the railway network.
Comments
Comments are closed.