On track

Published November 29, 2015
Passengers prepare to board a train coming into the Landhi Station. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi/White Star
Passengers prepare to board a train coming into the Landhi Station. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi/White Star

THE Cantonment Railway Station and the City Station are not the only two train stations in Karachi. This city has many railway stations, including the ones in Nazimabad, North Nazimabad, Orangi, Mauripur, Landhi and on Sharea Faisal. Of them, the last two here are where the trains stop and where you can even buy tickets as they happen to fall on the main line on which the Cantonment and City stations are also located. The rest are just sad reminders of the now defunct local circular railway.

Well hidden behind the narrow winding lanes under the Quaidabad flyover infested with encroachment in the shape of shops which further congest this area lies the Landhi Railway Station.

The few people who come here to catch their train seem to be in a big rush. “That’s because the train won’t stop for long, maybe two minutes, maybe five if they are lucky,” smiles Tariq Mahmood, a gentleman waiting there to receive his friends. “Those who miss getting on, well they’ll be in a major fix and those who want to get off, if they can’t do so here, they can always get off at the Drigh Road Station or even Cantt Station after that. What I have to do then is just get in my van and reach there at top speed,” he adds.

the train tracks buried under heaps of trash at the North Nazimbad Station. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi/White Star
the train tracks buried under heaps of trash at the North Nazimbad Station. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi/White Star

“All trains don’t stop here but only those which do really ought to stop for longer as this station is so much close to the residents of Landhi, Korangi and Malir, too. For those who live in Gulshan, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Sohrab Goth, New Karachi and Shah Faisal Colony, there is the Drigh Road Station but there, too, we have similar issues,” he says.

“At both these stations, the people quickly get on into any rail-road car or bogie so that they don’t miss the train. Then they are running around inside with their luggage looking for their seats. And sometimes they find others occupying their seats, who first of all won’t vacate them but if they do, they themselves have to start their own exercise of looking for their correct seats.”

loaders wait at the City Station for the train to come. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi/White Star
loaders wait at the City Station for the train to come. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi/White Star

There may be several junctions but stations where you’ll find a proper reservation office, food stalls, taxis, etc., which were all present at the Drigh Road Station. “We are a small station so there is no high platform for climbing into the trains here. We also experience extended loadshedding three times in 24 hours. It doesn’t affect the signals, of course, as we have generators for that purpose but passengers getting on or off after dark are at a disadvantage due to this problem,” says Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam, the station master there.

Asked if he was happy at the station as it must mean little work for him, the official replies, “My work and duties would be the same on any station although if posted at a bigger station, I would have more staff.”

At the City Station, too, there seems to be little staff, at least the porters, loaders or coolie, as they call them, were just six or seven in number. All sat in a row with nothing to do. When asked why he and his colleagues were sitting idle, one of them remarks: “Well, what do you expect us to do with just four or five trains stopping here and those, too, in the evenings?”

At the Drigh Road Station there is a timetable for local trains, which don’t run any more. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi/White Star
At the Drigh Road Station there is a timetable for local trains, which don’t run any more. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi/White Star

They don’t move to a busy station like Cantt either because he says they work for a contractor, who’s associated with the City Station. At the Karachi Cantonment Station, trains come and go one after the other on the eight platforms. The platform stalls and eateries are also much more in number along with some well-known fast food franchises. The station also has loco sheds, etc. What a comparison Cantonment Railway Station paints in front of the other little stations of the city. It is the best train station around, you would say … until you get on a train to Lahore of course!

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2015

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