LAHORE: As Eid holidays are just around the corner, the Lahore Railway Station is seeing more and more traffic on a daily basis.

It is afternoon and probably one of the busiest times of the year. Families with their suitcases and knotted cloth bundles, throng the platforms, some waiting wearily for their trains, others chattering excitedly about their journey. One man sees an acquaintance and rushes to greet him, hugging and wishing him ‘Eid Mubarak’ in advance.

It is time for the train for Karachi to come. Green Line train slides in at a platform, and a crowd of waiting passengers starts getting ready for their travel, while those traveling by other trains look on.

“I will be traveling to Quetta to visit my sister,” says Mehnaz (34), a mother of three. She is carrying two small cases of luggage along with a huge toy set for her nephew and niece. “It is Eid and I thought of getting them a gift from Lahore. It will be nice for them,” she says.

“I have a very long journey as I am going to Nawabshah, Sindh,” says Shaista. “Spending Eid holidays with my parents is something I look forward to.” Although Shaista has not bought any gifts from Lahore, she plans to get some Sohan Halwa from Multan.

Most people at the platform were travelling to Karachi or other southern cities and towns.

Outside one of the booking offices, queues of impatient people are getting longer. Inside, the officers are busily juggling work with phone calls, talking to passengers through the small aperture in the windows.

Reservation Clerk Anila sits snugly in her chair monitoring the janitor clearing up the office.

“This is nothing,” she almost sounds like she is boasting. “The rush will increase two fold by tomorrow I am sure. These are just the small time business people travelling.”

She adds that even though Eid rush has begun, the crowds for smaller stations will be expected to increase tomorrow.

“Unfortunately though, we still do not have enough trains to deal with this kind of passenger surge,” she says. “We definitely need new trains.”

At present the most used trains she says are Shalimar Express, Awami Express, Khyber Mail, Night Coach, Taiz Gaam, Quetta Coach, Jaffar Coach, Green Line and the Pindi-bound trains. There is expected to be a tripling of passengers, says Railways staff.

Meanwhile, the porters are trying to make the most of it. Unlike the porters at the airport who work under the Civil Aviation Authority, they do not have fixed rates and work for whatever they can get.

“Thank God that our rates increase during Eid and other such holidays,” says Maqbool, a burly 45-year-old, who stands on the platform looking for work. “I have been working here since 12 years and till now my daily wages are very poor,” he says, quoting Rs500 to Rs700 as the daily average.

In the meantime some passengers have afterthoughts. A handful come in the small bookshop to buy something to pass their time. The shop is owned by the education department, and is run by Abdur Rehman, who takes his job seriously.

“I have been sitting here since 15 years,” he says. “There are all kinds of people who come here – all kinds – with different reading habits for long train journeys.”

He lists books of Ashfaq Ahmed, Umera Ahmed popular among novels that are bought from his tiny cramped shop, while the travelogues of Mustansar Hussain Tarar are even more commonly bought.

There are many others who come in just to ask for cell phone top-ups or board games like ludo to play in the train.

“There used to be a time in the middle when crowds at railways stations had decreased to a large extent because of terrorism,” he remembers. “But it’s a good thing now that people are using trains again to travel.”

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2018