Decline of Pakistan Railway

The Pakistan Railway has been destroyed on purpose. The bus mafia is so strong, it has so much money, it can do what it wills. Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, the Railways Minister is the biggest transport tycoon in Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa, there is no major town in the province from which he does not have buses plying to Karachi. He never wanted the railway - even the vestige that was left of it by the turn of the century - to survive. He nicely put paid to it.

Bridge on the Soan River on the Rawalpindi-Daudkhel line. The Soan Bridge Railway Station is the white-washed building to the right. This is one of the most dramatic railway bridges still existing

But Bilour was small fry. The malaise began more than forty years ago. After taking over, Ayub Khan, the military dictator, instituted the huge subsidy on diesel reducing its price to less than half that of petrol. Several rich Khans from North and South Waziristan then controlled the truck business of Pakistan and this was to mollify them and keep them aligned with the dictator. The result was that much of the freight that railway (then still called North Western Railway to be shortly thereafter renamed Pakistan Western Railway) hauled was stolen away from it by the suddenly expanded truck fleet.

At the Lahore Cantonment Railway Station

The railway began its long journey to decline. But it was that accursed Zia who put the still living body into its coffin by establishing National Logistic Cell (NLC). That huge fleet of lorries and trailers running with clockwork took away the remaining freight from the railway. Now, there is no railway, not even in ultra-efficient Japan, that can earn profit simply by hauling passengers. Revenue comes from freight haulage. In the case of a long and narrow country like Pakistan, this was the best way of moving cargo: after the first 300 km, the cost of hauling by rail falls to less than 50 percent that of road haulage.

The ruined station of Alam Reg on the Lonely Line

But NLC was making money for the army, so the undermining of one of our great national assets was disregarded. Few will remember that this business was overseen by one General Saeed Qadir who was Zia's Minister for Railways - Bilour's old counterpart. If the US government wants to revamp Amtrak to make it preferable over air travel, they can surely do it. But in Pakistan I do not see the railway ever making a comeback. For one, we have antiquated tracks, most of which have not been renewed since they were laid down nearly a century ago. The transport mafia is far too strong for the country's politicians whose own lack of rectitude gelds them leaving them unable to take any significant nationalistic initiatives.

A nameless and ruined station east of Isa Tahar

Ah, what wouldn't I give to be able to get on, say, Khyber Mail from Lahore at 8.00 AM, watch the countryside slide past, eat a leisurely meal in the dining car and sleep in the comfort of the air conditioned coupe. The next morning, get into the toilet, shave and shower and be ready for business in Karachi! I remember a time, only twenty years ago, when I at the fag end of a journey would be somewhere in the middle of the country like Sadiqabad or Rohri. I would go to the railway station and there would be seven or eight (possibly more) trains headed for Lahore before the day was out. Getting on Awam Express from these places was ideal because it put you in Lahore at 5.00 the next morning. You slept comfortably and had the full day to work. By the way, this was after the trains were reordered: from the seven-bogey trains, they were turned into, I think, twenty-three bogies. Suddenly, there was enough room in the trains and tickets were easy to get. The 1990s were like the final dying gasp of the Pakistan Railway.

The Narrow Gauge loco shed at Hindubagh that became Muslimbagh in 1960 or ’62

As for the infrastructure, the less said the better. We have lost tracks in the Zhob Valley, Kohat-Thal and Bannu-Kalabagh (Narrow Gauge), the Mirpur Khas-Jhudo loop in Sindh (Metre Gauge) and several bits of Broad Gauge because these lines were abandoned long ago. The saddest is the loss of the Khyber Pass train.

The Muslimbagh Railway Station has been taken over to become a private home

The Lonely Line, running between Quetta and Zahedan (Iran) is virtually defunct. It is in such bad shape, probably never having been upgraded since 1914 when it was first laid, that trains virtually have to crawl along at about 20 km/h. No one now takes the Taftan Express between Quetta and Zahedan because passengers are in very real danger of being on the train for days on end. Even the freight trains take several days for the journey. In March 2009, I saw some railway staff at the ruined station of Isa Tahar and stopped to chat with them. They were waiting for some train en route to Zahedan. It was about 10.00 in the morning and the train should have passed through sometime the previous evening. We drove on to Quetta and after about 150 km we saw the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't getting anywhere near Isa Tahar for another couple of days! On this beautiful historical line, you find lengths of track with no ballast underneath and the sand blown away by the infamous sandstorms of this region. The Lonely Line, a name given it by the British builders because of the sparse population of the region its traverses, could have been one great attraction for train buffs. And don't forget the Zhob Valley Railway when you speak of attractions: this line has the beautiful Kan Mehtarzai railway station sitting at 2224 metres (7295 feet) which used to get snowed under. Years ago, I have heard such tales from Station Masters who served on this line when it ran until 1986.

Also bring to mind the destroyed bridges of the Nari River Gorge by which the daily Sibi-Khost service operated. The bridges were destroyed by the Baloch after the dastardly killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. It wasn't the fault of the railway that Nawab Sahib was laid low by a cowardly dictator.

Rare northbound freight train negotiates the siding at Jhalar Railway Station on the Rawalpind-Daudhel line

This was the Baloch people's own asset, but once wily leaders misguide ordinary folks, they see no reason. Three bridges were dynamited and the service to that magical place Khost brought to an end. This total disregard for an important asset has resulted in the destruction of some of the most picturesque railway stations. Oh, how much we have lost. But no tears were wasted, no sleep lost. No one fretted. We simply let the once great railway system hurtle down the dark tube.