Pakistan Railways to hike fares, reduce train services

[Justin Joseph]

Railways to hike fares, reduce train services

* Subsidies on Lahore-Rawalpindi, Lahore-Multan routes eliminated

* Half of all railway commercial carriages out of order

By Zeeshan Javaid

ISLAMABAD: Due to mounting financial losses and non-availability of rail engines, the Pakistan Railways has decided to discontinue more special passenger trains and to end subsidies on fares.

Sources in the Ministry of Railways told Daily Times that Pakistan Railways (PR) was unable to either purchase new rail engines or repair old ones due to a severe shortage of funds. Therefore, PR has decided to ground many special trains.

The special train service from Lahore to Sehwan Sharif for the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar festival will not run this year. The decision on special Eid trains will be taken later.

PR has also decided to eliminate subsidies on fares of the economy class category for the train service between the Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan stations.

The sources said that after the elimination of the subsidy, the price of an economy class ticket from Lahore to Rawalpindi would increase from Rs 220 to Rs 280, while the fare from Lahore to Multan would increase from Rs 250 to Rs 260.

PR grounded 13 passenger trains earlier in the month, including the Chiltan Express, the Quetta-Lahore train, the Mehran Express, the Mirpur Khas-Hyderabad train, the Tezrow, the Shalimar Express, the Sakhi Pal Express, the Lahore-Rawalpindi train, the Mehran Express, the Sialkot Express, the Sakhi Abbas passenger train and the Chiltan Express and the Shalimar Express.

Source said that 12 trains, which were plying between small stations and towns in Rawalpindi, have also been closed down. “It is completely unfair, as these areas have no road links. In some areas, the trains were the only source of transportation for the people,” the sources said.

In order to reduce losses, the sources said that the government had decided to divide PR into four commercial companies, which would have separate chief executive officers and boards of directors. “The existing board of directors is also dysfunctional, as it consists of five to six federal secretaries, who find it hard to meet at a specific time due to their official commitments”, the sources said. However, senior railways officials are opposed to the proposals.

Out of order: “Of a total 16,433 carriages, 8,000 are currently out of order”, the sources said.

The PR Carriage Factory has the responsibility of repairing these carriages. However, sources said the factory was unable to repair the carriages due to shortage of funds and skilled manpower. PR has decided to import 530 carriages from China. The department earlier imported 1,300 carriages from China as well.

On the other hand, PR’s engine fleet is also grounded after the Chinese company that manufactured them rejected all warranty claims. The US government has offered the PR a $400 million loan to purchase 150 engines.

The Pakistan Railways officials have written a letter to the federal government, asking it to allow them to accept the loan, as they were in “a desperate situation”. However, so far the federal government has not approved the offer.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[Nahraf]

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

Pakistan Railways suspends 6 train services

By Zeeshan Javaid

ISLAMABAD: Due to inadequate availability of rail engines, Pakistan Railways (PR) has decided to ground six train services in the country.

PR authorities on Saturday issued a notification regarding grounding of six more trains following the suspension of eight trains from operations.

According to the notification, the trains prevented from function included Sakhi Abbas Express, Karachi Mirpur Khas Express and Sialkot Express have been grounded from Today (Saturday).

Meanwhile, Chaltan Express and Tezro Express will be grounded from July 20 whereas Shalimar Express is due to be suspended from July 29. Routes of the suspended trains are as follows: Chiltan Express, Quetta-Lahore, Mehran Express, Mirpur Khas-Hyderabad, Tezro Peshawar-Karachi, Shalimar Express Lahore-Karachi, Sakhi Pal Lahore-Okara and Sialkot Express, Lahore-Rawalpindi.

Sources in PR told Daily Times that the authority has taken this decision due to un-availability of rail engines and initially these six train services would remain grounded for 3 months.

Sources informed that due to poor condition of PR, Cabinet Committee on Restructuring (CCoR) of Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) has already approved PR to be split into four companies (Passenger, Freight, Manufacturing and Asset Management) according to a restructuring plan. PR has cumulated Rs 50 billion ($600 million) debt. The process would start with administrative changes in the management of the debt-laden entity, followed by implementation plans, according to sources.

A ministerial committee is in charge of supervising the restructuring and privatisation strategies, with technical assistance provided by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

On Friday, Federal Minister for Railways, Ghulam Ahmed Bilour briefed the prime minister on the strategy being prepared to restructure PR, while the federal government had already decided to restructure eight major public sector enterprises including Railways and would like to see concrete proposals to turn the Railways into a self-sustaining public service entity.

Sources further said that in order to enhance the performance of the Railways, the department would be divided into four commercial companies, which would have their separate chief executive officers (CEO) and board of directors.

“The formation of the existing board of directors is quite odd, as it consists of five to six federal secretaries, who find it hard to meet at a specific time due to their official commitments”, he added. However, a well-placed source in PR said despite the approval from the committee, the top level officials of the Railways are not in favour of implementing the decision.

Source added that due to heavy losses, almost 12 trains plying between small stations and towns in Rawalpindi were shut down, but it was unfair to the dwellers of these towns, as they have no road links. In some areas, trains are the only source of transportation for the people. PR has 16,433 carriage wagons for commercial purposes, out of which 8,005 wagons have become out of order, however, to increase the revenue, PR has decided to import 530 carriage wagons from China, while the department has already imported 1,300 commercial carriage wagons from Republic of China” sources maintained.

He said that the US has offered a $400 million Export-Import Bank loan for immediate purchase of 150 locomotives by PR, which may come to a halt because of massive engine failures, Railway officials has written a letter to the federal government seeking permission to accept the loan as they find themselves in a desperate situation after failure of the Chinese locomotives and refusal of the Chinese company to honour the warranty on already purchased engines; however, “PR has not had a positive response by federal government so far”, he added.

 

[Nahraf]

Reply sought from Pak Railways over closure of trains | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online

Reply sought from Pak Railways over closure of trains
Published: July 27, 2010

LAHORE - Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif on Monday sought reply from the Pakistan Railways chairman and general manager on a petition, till August 4, challenging the decision to close six trains.
The court passed the orders on a petition filed by Vice President Railways Workers Union Rana Shaukat Ali in which he submitted that Railways had decided to close six trains including Mehran Express, Sialkot Express, Sakhi Abbas Passenger, Taiz Rao, Chiltan Express and Shalimar Express against interests of the passengers.
He submitted it was duty of Pakistan Railways to provide travel facilities to masses but the department snatched important facility from the already deprived people.
He submitted as a result of this decision many employees would also become jobless.
He prayed the court to set aside the decision. After hearing the petitioner’s counsel’s arguments, the court sought reply from the railway authorities and adjourned the hearing till August 4.

 

[jha]

It seems Pakistan railways is in deep $***..who closes the routes now a days..

 

[Hutchroy]

Railways to close 120 more train services

LAHORE: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Railways has approved the closure of 120 train services in the next two years, as these particular train services are facing huge financial losses, a private TV channel reported on Wednesday. Chairman of the NA standing committee, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Ayaz Sadiq and Pakistan Railways (PR) General Manager Ashfaq Khattak, told the media, that the resources, which would be saved from the halted trains, would be used on the cargo trains, which delivered oil to independent power producers (IPP). “40 trains are making profits of Rs 9 billion whereas more than 100 trains would be closed because of annual loss of Rs 10 billion,” they said. Sadiq urged the federal government to waive the debts of PR as it was facing debts of Rs 50 billion. Khattak said that PR had been operating 26 cargo trains, which could earn a profit of Rs 17 billion but due to shortage of engines it was not possible to do so, the TV channel reported. daily times monitor

 

[Nahraf]

It seems Pakistan railways is in deep $***..who closes the routes now a days..

Pakistan should stop train routes that don't make any money. It is not feasible to have trains running when there are not many paying customers. The private sector buses can take passengers that traveled on these routes and make money.

 

[BATMAN]

All thanks to the anti Pakistan PPPP govt.
There you go another institution crumbling... last i knew this institution was introducing new trains and considering to build bullet trains.

 

[Durrak]

some great chnges is required
which can be possible by the effort of goverment
but our goverment dont want to do anythng