A security guard pointing a gun at your chest may not be a perk of first-class travel in the West, but it’s all part of the service on Pakistan’s gleaming Business Express.
Thirteen carriages have been lovingly restored into a sleek sleeper to ply the 1,200 kilometres (800 miles) between
Pakistan’s two biggest cities, Lahore and Karachi, on an 18-hour journey that once used to take upwards of 30 hours.
Presided over on Friday by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, perhaps keen to front a good-news story as he faces contempt charges, and waved off by excited crowds it is Pakistan’s most luxurious and expensive train.
For Rs 5,000 one way ($55), or Rs 9,000 return, passengers are waited on by a bevy of attentive stewards, as they settle down to watch films on flat-screen TVs or power up laptops.
Afternoon tea and piping hot dinner – courtesy of chefs at five-star hotels are borne into cabins as uniformed guards
carrying rifles in the corridors are a reminder of a country troubled by kidnappings, Taliban and al Qaeda violence.
Then as night falls, stewards come round with crisp bed linen to turn slightly hard green bunks into inviting beds.
It’s all part of a first private investment of millions of rupees in the ailing state railways, billed as the last hope of preventing a much-loved relic of British rule from falling into ruin.
Corruption, mismanagement and neglect have driven Pakistan Railways to the brink. Since Gilani’s government took
power in 2008, the group has retired 104 of 204 trains in a country larger than Britain and Germany combined.
It relies on handouts of $2.8 million a month just to pay salaries and pensions, and faces expected losses of $390 million in the current fiscal year.
But the new train pulled away five minutes early and customers boarded from a brand-new business lounge at Lahore station. Decorated in tinsel, the engine then ground to a halt 10 minutes later to pick up more passengers.
Mariyam Imran, a strikingly beautiful young adviser for cosmetics firm L’Oreal, is delighted. A frequent traveller and terrified by a recent emergency landing on increasingly precarious state airline PIA, she is an avid convert.
“It’s beautiful. It’s relaxing, compared to the trains before. I’m so happy and very comfortable. The staff are good. It’s a marvellous train,” the 22-year-old young mother told AFP.
Travelling with her businessman husband, three-year-old daughter and sisterin-law they are heading to Karachi for a short break before returning to host a Valentine’s Day party at home in Lahore on February 14.
“I hate PIA. Oh my God, that emergency landing. Compared to the plane, this train is best. The service is very good.”
Gilani congratulated staff on what he called a “deluxe” and “state of the art” service that would serve as a trail blazer for future private-public partnerships capable of turning around Pakistan’s depressed economy.
why our writers mention every time about taliban & alquida in every artical ,may be our media like Alquida & Taliban..don't Fear Alquida & Taliban,Just must be Afraid from USA which is founder of Taliban & Alquida,,,
so according to formula Big dangrous USA government Under "Jawishezzam"instead of Taliban or Alquida.and every loyel citizen of pakistan in homland or other country like powerful,islamic Atomic Pakistan,and Business Express of railway best achievement .thanks,request to all prayer for pakistan
This is an AFP story, written by some foreign journalist or some Pakistani reporter who is bound to follow western line due to his job requirement. Hope you will understand the situation.
But the armed guards in the train and what they worry about is real. If you were a passenger in that train, you would have taken a note of it…
If you hate the west then; why you say nothing when you receive millions of $$ from the west?
You use western Idea and invention everyday ie Rail, Plane, TV, Phone, Internet and many more things made my west.. stop using them. You like their invention, ideas, $$ and what not.
Andy you are an idiot. West doesn't give aid because it's very charitable or because countries like Pakistan need it. They give it to their corrupt cronies to further their agendas and vested interests. As for inventions, they're all based upon what west learnt from the east centuries ago. Knowledge belongs to no-one but is collectively owned by humanity. West has looted Pakistan and India for centuries just as it's plundering the rest of the World. Pakistan would be much better off without West. Why can't West stop poking its nose in Pakistan and other countries' affairs? There wouldn't be any hunger and mayhem in the world if only West can mind its own damn business.
millions of dollars for aid? Pakistan is fighting a war against terrorism and against those people who the “west” planted against the soviets, Nato were given free supply lines through Pakistan for nearly 10 years.which costed Pakistan billions of dollars..
most of mathematics, chemistry, biology, astronomy etc has come from the east…stop using them!!!
knowledge is to be shared, you ignorant westener. Not stolen like the americans did after world war 2.. READ ABOUT “OPERATION PAPER CLIP”
You fool..don't generalize it as EAST..accept it and mention it as India…
100 % agree…Andy bhai…sorry to hurt your feeling…but the fact is that hunger, deprivation…crumbling infrastructure… secreterian violence…..economic losses and what not …and now lack of necessary and needful AID to the tune of $ 5 billion PA from our US friends has made us mad…….What should we do .Like the WEST. !…Its high time US start giving AID or…we shall take appropriate measures
They do this to please their foreign lords/gods
yes!
A right step into right direction. This is how Railway can generate more and more revenue. It must come up with more such luxurious trains. People have money. They want to spend. They simply need oppurtunities. One of the root cause Railway's gone bank rupt is that its fare are extremely low.
SHAHID HUSSEIN QABOOLPURIA,
LAHORE, PAKISTAN
good,,,institutions evolve in this way, once the genelas leave filling up their appetite the institution wd flourish
Let democracy rule,,see results in some years
WHAT is for the poor???
Your question is valid. Pakistan Railway has a long way to emerge as a public transportation system. So, yes, this is not a real public utility project for the Pakistanis. It would rather draw prime resources away from the mass utility component of the system. This glittery showcasing would also be short lived. And, yes, there is nothing in it for the poor. As always, they are the losers…
Just it is start. After few months there will be horrible stories about this train.
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