SUKKUR: Federal Minister for Railways Khwaja Saad Rafique has said that railways officials and staff needs to do more to improve performance of railways and win back commuters’ trust in the trains being the safest means of travel.

He said while chairing a meeting with divisional officers of Pakistan Railways (PR) at its Sukkur division offices here on Thursday that though he was satisfied with the current performance of railways he felt there was still room for improvement.

He directed the officers to provide more facilities to commuters who still preferred travel by trains so that the department could win back their trust. It could be possible through sincere efforts by the staff, he said.

He told journalists after the meeting that despite great odds sincere efforts were being made to improve performance of the department within limited available resources.

The minister said that he was hopeful the provincial government would extend cooperation to the divisional administration of PR Sukkur in removing encroachments from its property.

He said that he had talked to police and administration and he would also request Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah for cooperation in this regard during his upcoming meeting with him. The losses of railways had been reined in and commuters now preferred to travel by trains, he said.

The PR officials briefed the minister about the performance of railways’ Sukkur division, facilities being extended to passengers, problems caused by power loadshedding, shortage of water and security issues for train commuters besides a host of other issues confronting the department.

The meeting was attended by managing director Arshad Salman Khatak, assistant general manager traffic Jawed Anwar, DIG railway police Munir Ahmed Chishti, divisional superintendent Khalid Khursheed Kanwar, divisional personnel officer Shahid Samad, divisional traffic officer Shahid Raza, divisional commercial officer Tahir Marwat and others.