September 28, 2008	Sunday	Ramazan 27, 1429

LAHORE, Sept 27: The special trains, run to cater to the Eid rush, seemed to be insufficient as the railways stopped their booking on Saturday, some four days or so before the holy festival.

A great rush was witnessed at railways’ reservation offices in the evening for Eid booking and most visitors were seen returning disappointed.

A Railway official said that five special trains would be run during the ‘Eid operation’ starting from Monday (tomorrow).

“Some 100 trains leave Lahore for different destinations daily on an average. One or two extra coaches will be attached with every train, including the Eid specials, to cater to the rush. But tickets for extra coaches will be issued half-an-hour before the train departure,” the official said.

Two trains from Karachi and one each from Quetta, Lahore and Rawalpindi will take people to their destinations.

On Sept 29, the first special train will leave Karachi Cantt at 1pm to reach Sargodha the next day at 11am through Faisalabad, the second train from Karachi Cantt at 2.45pm to reach Peshawar the next day at 1pm through Lahore while the third special train will leave Quetta at 1pm to reach Peshawar Cantt the next day at 11.30pm through Rawalpindi.

On Sept 30, the fourth special train will leave Lahore at 8am to reach Rawalpindi at 1pm the same day while the fifth train will leave Rawalpindi at 5pm to reach Lahore at 10.20pm the same day.

Around 100,000 people visit the Lahore railway station, the busiest in the country, daily on an average and the number considerably increases on weekends and before and after holidays like Eid.

A number of ticket-seekers told this reporter that they preferred to travel by trains because the road transporters overcharged and misbehaved on occasions like Eid.