Last week at a press conference in Lahore Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique focused on the freight service to earn revenue. At present three cargo express trains are running between Lahore's Badami Bagh Station and Karachi. Soon the number of cargo trains will be increased to 12, besides starting the service on Karachi-Multan-Faisalabad sections also. Is this good news or a pipe dream?
It is good news as transportation of goods will fetch revenue for railways. The revenue target is Rs 28 billion to be increased to more than Rs 31 billion in the next fiscal year. It will also generate employment opportunities. Already, the minister said, 10,000 people are earning their livelihood since the resumption of the Cargo Express.
It is a pipe dream if the impact on road transport of goods has not been factored in. In the last thirty years road transport has grown into a vast network for all types of goods, from the revenue-earning rice, wheat and cotton, to farm produce, oil and gas, livestock, and smuggled guns and drugs. This sector initiated by the National Logistic Cell (NLC) in the Zia era, is now in the hands of what we call the truck mafia. As road transport increased train transport decreased, but will dependence on vehicular freight deminish if train freight increases?
The NLC has a stake in the Pakistan Railway (PR) venture. It will sign an agreement for induction of 10 freight-specific locomotives in the PR fleet. On the other hand, it has lost control of vehicular transport of goods. For example, it is OGDC which controls its fleet of oil and gas tankers. Rice, wheat and cotton meant for export arrives in Karachi mostly in privately hired vehicles.
Even people have stopped depending on train transport of goods. I recall sending my aunt's furniture by train to Lahore. That was in the 1960s. Now nobody seems to use train transport. Recently a large order of furniture made in Lahore arrived in a long vehicle to Karachi. The owners of the furniture said some delicate pieces, though they were packed in crates, must have been thrown into the truck by ignorant labourers. Those pieces were slightly damaged or bruised. A colleague who was transferred to Islamabad hired a truck for transport of his household goods. He complained everything was smelling of animal urine when it arrived from Karachi. Truckers clearly do not care what they transport. Obviously, the truck had brought livestock to Karachi and then hauled my colleague's household goods to Islamabad.
Inter-city bus transport has virtually replaced dependence on passenger trains. The recent experiment of a luxury train fizzled out. The business class prefers air travel. The fall off in train passengers was a direct result of the fall off in train freight because it introduced vehicular freight and then passenger buses followed.
If PR succeeds in popularising train freight service Karachiites will be the happiest people in the country. Not only the reduction or end of vehicular transport will ease traffic problems, it might also reduce or end infiltration of terrorists to this chronically beleaguered city. It is a notable fact the advent of road transport was the source of Karachi's Kalashnikov culture. In the Zia era there was a sudden increase in drug smuggling, made easy by road. The menace has not ended though the anti-drug agency is more alert than previously.
If all goods, public and private are freighted by train, the truck mafia will not give in without a fight. It could lead to a new kind of terrorism in which goods trains are target. God Forbid it, but such a contingency cannot be ignored. Have you ever heard of convoys blown up or plundered? (this is not about stoppage of goods being transported to American soldiers in Afghanistan, and the case of some vehicles set ablaze as a protest against drone attacks). Isn't it a profound question?
I once travelled by Karachi Express from the city to Lahore. It changed the meaning of "express" for me. The train moved at snail's pace, stopping at each and every nondescript town on the way. It picked up speed at Khanewal, but even then, it was one and a half days before the journey ended. So what does Cargo Express mean? Freight trains cover the distance between Lahore and Karachi in three days. The Minister for Railways plans to reduce the time by half-a-day. It is a mystery why goods trains always move so slowly.
The premise on which the freight sector of PR is said to be workable, or feasible, is that transportation of goods is the major source of income for railways world-wide. Pakistan, however, is a different ball-game. The world does not have to contend with the menace of truck mafia.
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