KARACHI: Passengers looking to travel by train have to wait at railway stations in the city for hours until they could board a train on Tuesday.

Due to heavy rains in the entire country, which has resulted in damage of several railways tracks especially in rural parts of Sindh, many trains that were to depart from Karachi were delayed or cancelled altogether because of which the trains that were running had to carry the passengers of the cancelled trains.

This has been going on for the past several days but on Tuesday, the railway stations of the city wore a deserted look, like a ghost town, with very few trains leaving and hardly any activity.

The people with their luggage along with packed food just sat waiting on the platform benches hoping for things to improve. Normally, when trains are delayed, there is a huge crowd seen waiting on the platforms or lining up at the information desks. But this time most of the people having lost hope of travelling by train in bad weather had left for home or gone looking for alternate transportation.

Many didn’t even feel safe travelling by train so decided to book bus rides or just give up their travel plans until things improved. Only those who really needed to travel in an emergency were seen waiting for their trains.

According to Pakistan Railways, the trains that were delayed included the Zakaria Express, Khyber Mail, Sukkur Express.

Meanwhile, Karakorum Express, Karachi Express, Tezgam, Bolan Mail and Pakistan Express were the trains that had to be cancelled altogether.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2022