The British left the Indian sub-continent long ago but the railway system they built all over the land mass is still in place, almost unchanged, in Pakistan.
The kerosene lamps still light up railway stations in far off places and the obsolete manually operated signalling system, of the 18th century, continues to control the rail traffic across the country to this day. Neighbouring India, on the other hand, has expanded its railway network and introduced computer-based signalling system, like rest of the advanced countries.
The Pakistan railways currently rely on two signalling systems in the country; the mechanical interlocking system and the automatic interlocking system.
In the mechanical system, the main cabin, manned by railway officials, controls the traffic and the cabin men lower the signal manually by pulling down an iron lever installed in the signal box.
At night, a kerosene lamp is hoisted up the signal pole to light up the green or the red spot, as the situation demands. And the station master uses a similar lamp to clear or stop a passing train.
In the automatic interlocking system, the electric power helps send down the signal automatically, and light it up at night.
Most railway stations are equipped with mechanical signalling. Modern signalling, such as all-relay interlocking, automatic block signalling, and centralized traffic control, is installed only at the major railway stations.
There are 123 stations equipped with non-interlocked mechanical signalling, 185 stations with standard-I, 20 stations with standard-II, and 217 stations with standard-III mechanical signalling, whereas 40 stations are equipped with all-relay interlocking. Auto block signalling is provided on the 160km double line section, between Landhi and Hyderabad, and a centralized traffic control on the 24km section between Karachi Cantonment and Landhi.
Railway officials manually operate the signal system on the Lahore to Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Lahore to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Lahore to Balochistan sections.A senior railway official told Dawn that the introduction of modern signalling system would increase the average speed of trains to 90 km/hour, and to 110 km/hour in the northern part of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“Prevalent slow speeds cause heavy financial loss in terms of punctuality. Because of that, the freight service of Pakistan Railways is non-functional. An improved signal system will also help avoid train accidents,” he said.Although the ministry of information and technology is willing to provide its services to the railways, free of cost, in the initial phase, the red tape is blocking the way of improving the signalling system.
For one, the former general manager operations of the Pakistan railways, Junaid Qureshi, did not agree with the idea. In his opinion, the old signalling system was more reliable than the computer-based interlocking.
“The only problem we have faced in operating the old system is the spare parts for the mechanical interlocking. They are not available in the international market. Cabin men running the present system make it more secure than the automatic and the computerized interlocking,” he said.
Though he agreed that computer-based interlocking is “a better option”, he said it needs heavy funding, which the railways do not have at present. He claimed things have improved in the railways, during the last few years, reflected in its “increased earnings”.
Pakistan Railways Workers Union President Ishtiaq Asi told Dawn that the railway officials were not willing to change the old and obsolete systems in the railways. “Otherwise, it could be the best travelling mode in this part of the world,” he said.
“Bureaucracy is the main hurdle in realizing the railway minister’s promise, to replace the signal system and double the length of the track,” he said.
“If the minister wants change, he should get rid of the old and corrupt bureaucracy in the railways. It will take time to clear the mess created by the former generals,” he said.
Divisional Superintendent Munawar Khan told Dawn that the Pakistan railways were working to install computer-based interlocking between Karachi to Khanpur and Lodharan to Raiwind. It will soon improve the signalling system from Lahore to Peshawar.
“In the next phase, the rail track will be doubled from Lahore to Peshawar, and the computer-base interlocking will replace the existing signalling systems,” he said.
That will also involve replacing the century-old kerosene oil lamps with light-emitting diodes (LEDs). “It will save the railway some money as kerosene costs a lot,” he said.
