KARACHI, Feb 11: Pakistan Railways on Saturday resumed the train operation here after a delay of 24 hours as one of the two tracks has been opened for train traffic which had been closed following the collision of two freight trains some 27 kilometres from Hyderabad district.

Lahore-bound Karakoram Express was the first train that departed around 4:22pm from Cantonment Station here after a delay of 24 hours, railway officials said.

A visit to the station shows that the railway department had displayed notices on ticket counters and information window that all the trains would leave for their respective destinations on their schedule. People were seen waiting for their desired train on platforms. Hundreds of passengers, including elders, children and women, stood beside the luggage, as there was no seating arrangement for them at the platform. Although some benches were there at the platform, they were not enough for the large number of passengers.

“Pakistan railways have never bothered to expand the facility at the stations, which were built in the British era. We are the frequent travellers of train and we have to face miseries during travelling by train. There are no clean bathrooms at the station while the food stuff is expensive,” a passenger said at the station.

People in general complained that the telephone numbers of railway inquiry were continuously busy and they had to come to the station to seek information about train timings.

Railway officials said that the trains which had arrived the metropolis before the collision were not allowed to leave on Friday as the tracks were occupied by the wreckage. One of the two tracks had been cleared on Saturday and the railway resumed its operation.

They said that more than 19 trains, which were scheduled to depart from Karachi on Friday, were cancelled and the passengers were asked to collect full refund of their tickets. “We have treated them on priority in the onward trains,” a railway official said.

They said that four trains – Shalimar Express, Shah Rukn-i-Alam, Super Express and Chanab Express – which had reached Hyderabad from upcountry, could not continue their journey to Karachi in the first half of the day and were dispatched to upcountry from Hyderabad.