Railway privatisation: not as promising as promised?

Having received a lot of criticism and flak for its dismal performance, Pakistan Railways (PR) resorted to the one option that was touted as the best one left to bring some order in rail networks - privatisation. Shalimar Express and Business Express started operations as private railway services running between Karachi and Lahore, with large-scale hype given to both.
It seems like PR has enjoyed the privatisation spells, as news of Shalimar-II and outsourcing of Bolan Mail - train service between Quetta and Karachi - are doing the rounds of the local media.
Even though efficiency gains, profitability and reduced corruption and misuse of resources are cited as reasons in favour of privatisation, handing over the running of a public service to a third party doesn come without its shortcomings.
Firstly, higher fares make another mode of transport relatively dearer and out of reach for the general populace. For a trip from Karachi Cantt to Lahore Cantt, Pakistan Railways Khyber Mail charges Rs1,030 for a basic economy class seat. As per the tariffs on respective websites, while the Shalimar Express charges a slightly higher Rs1,150 for a basic economy class seat on the same route, Pak-Business Expresss cheapest one-way travel between the cities is Rs3,500.
Considering that the section of the populace generally availing train services are usually on meager wages, even Rs100 is a strain on the pockets. Though Shalimar Expresss cheaper fares are quite comparable, Business Expresss significantly higher tariff plausibly explains the reportedly lower occupancy ratios for the service relative to Air Rail Services Shalimar Express.
Even developed countries such as UK have had to bear the brunt of expensive fares as a result of privatisation of Railways. "The price of season tickets for commuter train journeys to the capital (London) cost between 3.5 times and 9.7 times more than in other European countries, where Railways are still publicly owned," said an article by Neil Clark in the Huffington Post.
Besides, risks due to lack of safety without any public regulation also abound. Shalimar Expresss accident with Millat Express last September near the Bin Qasim Railway station did cause many eye brows to be raised.
Adding to the ado, some private players have not been levelling well in terms of profitability either. The Business Train service has defaulted millions of rupees to the Pakistan Railways as it could not meet the predicted occupancy ratios. Re-negotiations were made last month to resume services after it was suspended due to the failure to pay the dues. Ironically, not much was mentioned about payment of the heavy dues in the renegotiation process.
"The train (is) being run with the decrease in pegged occupancy ratio from 88 percent to 65 percent. The service business train was interestingly being resumed without payment of the existing huge dues," said a report in these papers earlier in February regarding resumption of Business Expresss services. These dues are to the tune of about Rs320 million.
Overall, Pakistan Railway has not been performing to the optimum, with route kilometers having fallen considerably over the past years. But the question is, for the price the public has to pay, is privatization really a great idea to help the sector?