Long-distance commuters are in a quandary as the Pakistan Railways (PR) authorities have yet not decided to run Eid trains for the upcoming holiday, Pakistan Today learned on Sunday. Despite Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s order to run special Eid trains to facilitate commuters wishing to spend Eid at home, the PR has failed to chalk out a working schedule.
In face of the prevalent financial crises in the PR, it is widely rumoured that no special trains would be introduced this Eid. PR Public Relations Director Mohsin Yousuf told Pakistan Today that the PR was undergoing a severe financial crisis and in the given circumstances, it was very difficult for the department to run special Eid trains. He said to facilitate commuters, the PR might run three trains on Eid subject to the availability of engines and funds.
The Finance Ministry only gave approval of a summary but did not provide funds for the service yet. Yousuf added: “We understand the commuters’ misery and that is why we are struggling hard. I hope we will soon give good news to the public.” He said the PR had limited resources and would have to close down trains moving on branch lines to run the Eid trains. According to sources in the department, only profitable trains would continue to operate as the PR is already running a deficit and is in no position to bear unnecessary expenditure.
Annually, more than 60 million commuters travel by trains across the country and every month almost 5 million passengers avail services by the PR. In Ramadan, the number of commuters increases with approximately 7 million passengers travelling in the last 10 days of the month. With 2.3 million additional commuters, the PR has to run special trains to meet the demand.
If the railways failed to run Eid trains this year, more than 2.3 million people would be directly affected and might have to face a lot of difficulty travelling near Eid. Commuters are already fed up because of delays in train schedules and with no trains available on Eid, their sufferings would increase. A commuter Ahmed Bajwa told Pakistan Today that it would be hard for him to travel to his hometown Rahim Yar Khan if the PR did not run Eid trains.
He expressed concern that the train fares would double because of Eid and the 10-hour journey would become economically burdensome for low-income people like him. Punjab University student Alina Azhar said: “With lesser number of trains than required, acquiring a train ticket to get home on Eid holidays would almost be impossible. The Eid rush will also disrupt the already shaken train-schedules as passengers will have to wait long-hours to reach their desired destinations.”
Other passengers feared that no Eid trains would divert the commuters to bus stands. “Bus fares already triple near Eid, it would be unaffordable to get home by bus,” said factory worker Amir Mehmood from Sukkur. Besides the Eid trains issue, delays in departure and arrival of trains continued on Sunday as well as the PR closed down 60 trains early this year because of a shortage of engines.
Timely departure of a number of trains from Lahore Railway Station could not be made possible and people were forced to stay at the railway station during Sehr and Iftar waiting for their trains. All trains across the country were around four to 11 hours late.
No Eid trains this Ramadan?
