KARACHI: The first four Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) trains for the general public completed successful runs from the City Railway Station to Pipri and vice versa on Friday.

There were two trains in the morning, both leaving simultaneously from the City Station and the Pipri Station at 7am sharp. The trains made brief five-minute stopovers at the Cantonment Railway Station, Chanesar Halt, Drigh Road and Airport Halt to reach their destinations on time at 8.30am.

The second set of trains from both stations had slightly different timings for the convenience of passengers. The one from Pipri departed at 4.30pm to reach the City Station by 6pm. The other train from City Station left at 5pm to reach Pipri at 6.30pm through the same route.

Though there were not too many passengers in the trains with five coaches each despite fare for the first day being exempted by Federal Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, people who saw the train chugging into the stations were curious about it, especially after noticing its different colour, and asked the passengers about their experience.

Some labourers also took advantage of the local train to get on it from one halt to travel to the next within minutes. There were also some picnickers on the train, that departed from City Station in the morning, who only wanted to travel one way via train and had asked their drivers to pick them up from the Chanesar Halt, Drigh Road Station, Airport Halt and even Pipri.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2020