LAHORE: As Monday afternoon’s derailment of a goods train near Rahim Yar Khan badly affected railways operations throughout the country, some senior officials have advised Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid not to push for new trains.

Since the formation of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government in August last year, the minister has inaugurated 10 ‘new’ trains by using the reserve rolling stock which is meant to be used in emergency.

Thousands of passengers having confirmed reservations for Tuesday and Wednesday in various express trains from Lahore to Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and other destinations and vice versa either returned home or kept waiting for the departure of trains after the Pakistan Railways allegedly failed to provide substitute trains due to non-availability of the additional roiling stock.

Passengers continued to suffer since Monday’s derailment of the special freight train which badly damaged Up/Down tracks, forcing the railway authorities to halt trains at different railway stations for several hours. Women, children and elderly passengers spent several hours in their respective trains without water and food. The rail officials present at the stations did not make any effort to feed them and provide them with water.

No substitute trains available as minister inaugurated 10 ‘new’ trains by using reserve rolling stock meant to be used in emergency

According to an official, the situation could have been brought to normalcy had the designated rakes for several express trains like Tezgam, Shalimar, Khyber Mail not been used to run new trains. “When the emergency situation came, we had no rolling stock.”

The official explained that since Up/Down trains remained stuck on the way due to the derailment, it caused a massive delay in their running schedule on the entire rail network. “Though the track has been repaired and traffic restored, it will take at least four more days to return to normalcy. The crisis has aggravated due to the non-availability of additional rakes/rolling stock,” he claimed.

On the other hand, the freight train’s derailment and its aftermath situation have forced the railway administration to review its decision to introduce another VIP train (Sir Syed Express) that is supposed to be launched by end of this month or so.

According to a railways’ spokesman, 31-Up Jinah Express reached Lahore over 10 hours late from Karachi on Wednesday at 5.15pm. Similarly, the arrival of 7-Up Tezgam in Lahore and Rawalpindi from Karachi was also delayed by about 14 hours. The 17-Up Millat Express too faced hours-long delay in its arrival at Faisalabad. Likewise, due to delayed arrival of trains, the departure of Jinah Express, Karakorm, Business Express, Akbar Express, Pakistan Express and others was also delayed for several hours. The departure of various trains, including Karachi Express, was also cancelled.

At the derailment site near the Tranda Sawaye Khan railway station, the 1,525-foot-long affected/damaged track was completely replaced on Tuesday night. A PR official in RY Khan said the rail traffic remained suspended for 22 hours after the derailment.

PR’s spokesperson Quratul Ain told Dawn that three officials had been suspended for negligence, while a fact-finding committee comprising senior officials was conducting an inquiry. She said complete restoration of traffic operations would take two to three days.

According to Dawn Peshawar bureau, the railways traffic between Karachi and Peshawar remained disrupted on the second consecutive day on Wednesday as Khyber Mail arrived at the Cantonment railway station after a delay of about 12 hours. The schedule time of Jaffar Express was 6pm, but it reached at 8pm, while Awami Express was supposed to reach at 5pm, but it didn’t reach Peshawar till 8pm.

The situation remained disturbed in Karachi as various trains faced massive delays and cancellations on Wednesday.

Similarly, trains reaching Rawalpindi were late by more than 17 hours. A senior PR official told Dawn that Tezgam would arrive at 10am on Thursday — 15 hours late — and it will depart at 1.30pm, five hours behind its schedule time. Pakistan Express will arrive on Thursday at 7.30am and will depart at 10.30am. Millat Express will arrive at 8am on Thursday and it will be 17 hours late. Hazara Express will arrive at 10am and will depart at 2pm.

Shazia Hasan, Malik Irfanul Haq and Amir Yasin contributed to this report from Karachi, Rahim Yar Khan and Islamabad, respectively

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2019