To add to the sufferings of people who are already facing severe communication problem following the devastating floods across the country, the federal government on Thursday approved the closure of 120 passenger trains. Out of the 120, about 28 passenger trains have already been closed for what the railways claims losses and shortage of locomotives.
The locomotives of the closed trains, according to the officials of Pakistan Railways (PR), would be used to run freight trains to generate more revenue for the government department. The high-ups of Pakistan Railways had sent a summary to Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani proposing the closure of these trains, which the Centre has finally approved after a few months. The step according to sources in PR was taken as an alternative to privatisation of railways as it was strongly objected by the PR employees.
Though the fresh move, as claimed, is to save the entire railways system going into the private hands, sources termed these steps as a conspiracy to push the government institution towards failure. Interestingly, despite closure of the 28 trains no bogies have been added to the existing passenger trains as they currently have only 8 to 10 bogies. Passenger train should have at least 18 to 20 bogies to meet the seats' requirements, sources said.
Though most of the trains to be closed, are running on inter-city routes having 2 to 5 bogies but the government has also decided to close few passenger trains having more junctions and number of seats/bogies. The railway administration has recently closed the profitable trains like Shalimar Express, Taizro Express and Shah Rukn-e-Alam Express, which were being run between Karachi-Lahore, Karachi-Rawalpindi and Karachi-Multan routes respectively.
These trains, according to sources, were being closed at a time when the PR was already facing shortage of trains to facilitate the people especially during the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr. However, the employees of PR who have long been resisting the possible plan to privatise railways, have showed their serious reservations over the closure of main trains.
Talking to Business Recorder, Manzoor Razi, office bearer of Railways Workers Union, said that the step would deprive the crisis-hit people of the only poor-friendly means of transportation. Though, he said, the union has yet to decide launching a protest against the fresh government move, the employees would not only resist the closure of trains but will also try to stop railways going into the hands of profit-crazy private companies.