According to a press report (Dawn 10th April), the Pakistan Railways' revenue from goods traffic has declined precipitously, registering a fall of Rs1.2 billion during three quarters of the current fiscal year
, as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year because of the less demand of its tank wagon fleet used for moving fuel oil.
In this regard two reasons have been given: firstly, cement factories have switched over to cheaper coal of Balochistan origin and, secondly, the power-producing plants are consuming indigenous natural gas in place of imported and costly fuel oil.
But what is strange about the pitch for the Railway is the construction of fuel oil pipeline from Kiamari to Mahmud Kot (near Multan) which carries this high-rated traffic produced by the Oil Refineries located in the Port Area.
With the projected expansion of the pipe line north of Multan to major storage points, the Railways will not only be completely deprived of this extremely profitable liquid cargo but its tank wagons, which can not be used for alternative traffic except, perhaps, molasses will be idling and rusting.
The Railways all over the world, it is a common perception, earn far more from freight operation than from passenger services and they spend much more on the latter than on the former. In other words, goods revenues subsidise passenger trains which cost more than half of the total expenses incurred by the Railway on operation and maintenance.
In Pakistan, the ratio of passenger and goods service cost, according to informed guess, is 60:40, which was about 65:35 in the forties of the previous century and perhaps, 70:30 before partition.
Till the sixties of the preceding century, the Pakistan Railways had a near monopoly of transporting goods traffic, as the road transport had yet to develop to the extent one finds it today.
Now the position has reversed, the road vehicles enjoying near monopoly position, carry nearly 93 per cent of all kinds of goods leaving hardly 7 per cent for the Railways to carry.
And this precious percentage comprised mostly the fuel oil carried by tank wagons, apart from a few train-loads of containers from the sea port to the inland dry ports on daily basis. So, if this small, but high valued, chunk is under threat of diversion to pipe line then those who run the Railways or 'mind the trains', have to wake up and think.
A close scrutiny of goods traffic carried by the Railway in the preceding fiscal (2002-3), whose figures are available, reveals that: (i) a total of 5.3 billion tonne kilometres were carried by goods trains, parcel train and parcel vans attached to fast passenger services; (ii) only 4.8 billion tonne-kilometres were carried by purely goods trains showing that half a billion tonne-kilometres or 10 per cent of the entire goods that moved by rail, was booked by the consigners at higher parcel rates, only for quick and safe transit.
Such goods can confidently be expected to be offered for carriage by parcel vans attached to fast passenger services and their volume might increase to the extent the Railway augments its capacity to carry these goods (fruits and vegetables, fish and other perishable items, as well as cotton and silk piece goods, electrical and electronic goods, medicines and lots of consumer goods) in fast and safe luggage/parcel vans running attached to mail and express trains; (iii) out of 4.8 tonne- kilometres of goods carried exclusively by goods trains, Railway's own commodities like fuel, ballast, rails and sleepers and other stores amounted to 0.4 billion tonne-Kms of unnamed 'miscellaneous' goods which include military traffic that were previously being shown separately, were carried.
These constitute 35 per cent of the total goods; and lumped with the Railway's departmental goods they become 45 per cent of the entire goods traffic that moved by purely goods trains.
So, if that is the position, what is the blooming idea of trying to compete with private road hauliers and government-owned NLC who enjoy an edge over the railway by providing service on the door step, taking less transit time and ensuring no loss and pilferage of goods on way.
Why then invest the scarce resources in modernising the freight carrying rolling stock and providing mechanised handling facilities at freight terminals, and so on? Why not invest in creating additional carrying capacity for passengers and parcels by running any number of long distance fast passenger services?
Latest figures of Railway's earning show that passenger and parcel services are yielding about 60 per cent of the total revenue, against 44 per cent during the 50's of the previous century. Thus, it is not the goods traffic, but the passenger traffic which is now this Railway's mainstay.
So, if not by design but entirely by force of circumstances, let the Railways decide to withdraw from senseless competition with road transport in the field of goods traffic and content itself with carrying whatever offers to it by virtue of its suitability as a carrier, e.g. containers from sea port to inland dry ports, edible oil in tank wagons, Afghan in-transit goods and stop accepting low-rated goods like coal, stone, ores, food grains, fire wood etc.
The large number of slow-moving goods trains, each carrying an average of 65 four wheeled wagons with 2000 tonnes of pay load not being there to clog the path of fast passenger services and obstruct their smooth flow, the Railways operating branch will have a free hand in crafting a plan of running a much larger number of passenger express services from the port city to provincial capital cities - all such trains having only air- conditioned accommodation of upper and lower standards.
The Railways will notice that all such trains will be booked in advance, the unfulfilled and unsatisfied demand of the travelling public being so large. In addition, a large number of passengers now travelling in extreme discomfort by long distance buses, haunted by a sense of insecurity during journey, will divert to comfortable, safe and punctual train services. At least by travelling in cool dust free coaches, the public will have a feel of the fact that they are citizens of a universally recognized 'middle income state'.
All the non-air conditioned coaches could ply on short distance trains running from the provincial metropolises to the district towns, and all the ramshackles of previous century vintage should be consigned to the scrap heap.
Karachi, like London, will need additional main line passenger terminals in various areas of the sprawling city. Some of the existing suburban stations like North Nazimabad, Gilani, Liaquatabad on the KCR can be upgraded for this purpose at small cost.
