Seems like our organizations chiefs are deef and dumb ............. Its indeed sad to see such a wonderful mode of transportation collapsing day by day ......................
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Late arrival and departure of passenger trains at the Karachi Cantonment Railway Station along with poor facilities and mismanagement is causing immense problems to commuters with the result that people now blame the government and Pakistan Railways (PR) authorities for their sufferings.
For the past many weeks, most of the upcountry trains, including the Allama Iqbal Express, Pakistan Express, Tezgam and Shalimar Express, which are preferred by people travelling to Punjab, leave the platform well after the scheduled departure time.
On Wednesday, the Allama Iqbal Express left Cantt. Station at around 6:00 pm although its departure time is 2:30 pm. Same was the situation of other popular passenger trains as they too left the station after a delay of three to four hours while the passengers suffered in the sizzling summer heat.
Only a couple of trains like Karakoram Express and Karachi Express were being sent on time by the railway authorities as they have the ‘elite’ business class boogies and people spend thousands of rupees to get their tickets.
The passengers, who had seats reserved some two to three weeks back, cursed the government and railway authorities, including the Federal Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, for causing them inconvenience.
Talking to this scribe, the stranded passengers blamed Bilour and former minister Javed Ashraf Qazi and said, “They have left the Railway on the verge of collapse. PR officials are also conspiring to deprive the masses of the cheapest means of transportation.”
An elderly woman, who had reservation of Allama Iqbal Express for Sialkot said she her son had come to see her off but owing to the delay in train’s departure, he was standing by her for the past three hours and was late for work.
“There are no facilities for passengers at the railway stations. All the uncomfortable benches for passengers are occupied and many of us are sitting on the platform. I don’t know when the train will arrive and I would start the journey,” the lady complained.
Another family with children was also highly annoyed over the attitude of railway authorities. “For the past 20 years, we have hardly arrived on time at our destination thanks to PR. I’m going to my ancestral village near Lahore along with my kids. However, travelling by train is a misery from the start to the end,” Amin Ahmed, the head of the family added.
Another passenger, Rizwan Ali, who was returning from Lahore, told The News that he had come to Karachi a couple of days back through Karakoram Express in business class. “The train was due to arrive at Cantt Station at 10am but it took over 24 hours to arrive here and I reached Karachi at 4pm. My family members who had come to receive had to wait here endlessly for six hours to greet me,” he added.
Apart from delays in arrivals and departures, travel conditions in these trains are extremely filthy and cause immense inconvenience to commuters during their journeys spread over 20 to 24 hours.
“In business class, which is highly expensive traveling class introduced by the railway authorities, I have seen numerous cockroaches in the seats and washrooms, which shows the hygienic conditions of these trains” Abdullah, an upcountry resident said.
He said often water becomes scarce in the washrooms, fans don’t work and even air conditioners of trains do not work properly in this immensely hot weather, causing serious problems to passengers especially women and children.
DS Railways Aftab Memon could not be reached despite repeated visits to his office and calls to his cell-phone. However, other railway officials admitted that these problems existed.
“As far as delayed arrivals and departure of trains is concerned, former railway minister Javed Ashraf Qazi is to blame who purchased substandard Chinese locomotives, which are causing great trouble these days” a senior railway official said, requesting anonymity.
Apart from faulty and substandard locomotives, broken power generation plants, scarcity of boogies fit for travel, and lack of other facilities like small number of platforms and washing lines were some other issues behind the inconvenience to masses, he added.
The railway official said that railway tracks had not been fully rehabilitated since the riots after the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto while the signal system was another concern that was adding to the delays in trains’ arrivals and departures.
“Unfortunately, all these issues are in the knowledge of senior railway authorities including the federal minister, Chairman and GM Railways but they appear least concerned about problems to common people,” he added.
A railways’ labour leader Muqadar Zaman blamed the nexus of politicians and senior railway officers for the destruction of Pakistan Railways that led to extreme inconvenience to people and said unless these people mend their ways, no improvement was possible in Railways.
Zaman, who is senior vice president of Railway Labour Union (Railway Mehnutkash Union), said that officers were enjoying all privileges while lower-grade employees were being denied their basic rights and their condition was compelling them to adopt unethical practices.
“For instance, employees and their families are being forced to travel in economy class instead of lower AC class as this class is being abolished from most of the trains. Now employees are being compelled to travel in economy class whose condition is getting bad to worse with each passing day” he added.
He demanded the authorities to improve travel conditions for everybody including ordinary passengers by arranging timely departures and arrivals of the trains and provide them hassle-free journeys.
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Late arrival and departure of passenger trains at the Karachi Cantonment Railway Station along with poor facilities and mismanagement is causing immense problems to commuters with the result that people now blame the government and Pakistan Railways (PR) authorities for their sufferings.
For the past many weeks, most of the upcountry trains, including the Allama Iqbal Express, Pakistan Express, Tezgam and Shalimar Express, which are preferred by people travelling to Punjab, leave the platform well after the scheduled departure time.
On Wednesday, the Allama Iqbal Express left Cantt. Station at around 6:00 pm although its departure time is 2:30 pm. Same was the situation of other popular passenger trains as they too left the station after a delay of three to four hours while the passengers suffered in the sizzling summer heat.
Only a couple of trains like Karakoram Express and Karachi Express were being sent on time by the railway authorities as they have the ‘elite’ business class boogies and people spend thousands of rupees to get their tickets.
The passengers, who had seats reserved some two to three weeks back, cursed the government and railway authorities, including the Federal Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, for causing them inconvenience.
Talking to this scribe, the stranded passengers blamed Bilour and former minister Javed Ashraf Qazi and said, “They have left the Railway on the verge of collapse. PR officials are also conspiring to deprive the masses of the cheapest means of transportation.”
An elderly woman, who had reservation of Allama Iqbal Express for Sialkot said she her son had come to see her off but owing to the delay in train’s departure, he was standing by her for the past three hours and was late for work.
“There are no facilities for passengers at the railway stations. All the uncomfortable benches for passengers are occupied and many of us are sitting on the platform. I don’t know when the train will arrive and I would start the journey,” the lady complained.
Another family with children was also highly annoyed over the attitude of railway authorities. “For the past 20 years, we have hardly arrived on time at our destination thanks to PR. I’m going to my ancestral village near Lahore along with my kids. However, travelling by train is a misery from the start to the end,” Amin Ahmed, the head of the family added.
Another passenger, Rizwan Ali, who was returning from Lahore, told The News that he had come to Karachi a couple of days back through Karakoram Express in business class. “The train was due to arrive at Cantt Station at 10am but it took over 24 hours to arrive here and I reached Karachi at 4pm. My family members who had come to receive had to wait here endlessly for six hours to greet me,” he added.
Apart from delays in arrivals and departures, travel conditions in these trains are extremely filthy and cause immense inconvenience to commuters during their journeys spread over 20 to 24 hours.
“In business class, which is highly expensive traveling class introduced by the railway authorities, I have seen numerous cockroaches in the seats and washrooms, which shows the hygienic conditions of these trains” Abdullah, an upcountry resident said.
He said often water becomes scarce in the washrooms, fans don’t work and even air conditioners of trains do not work properly in this immensely hot weather, causing serious problems to passengers especially women and children.
DS Railways Aftab Memon could not be reached despite repeated visits to his office and calls to his cell-phone. However, other railway officials admitted that these problems existed.
“As far as delayed arrivals and departure of trains is concerned, former railway minister Javed Ashraf Qazi is to blame who purchased substandard Chinese locomotives, which are causing great trouble these days” a senior railway official said, requesting anonymity.
Apart from faulty and substandard locomotives, broken power generation plants, scarcity of boogies fit for travel, and lack of other facilities like small number of platforms and washing lines were some other issues behind the inconvenience to masses, he added.
The railway official said that railway tracks had not been fully rehabilitated since the riots after the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto while the signal system was another concern that was adding to the delays in trains’ arrivals and departures.
“Unfortunately, all these issues are in the knowledge of senior railway authorities including the federal minister, Chairman and GM Railways but they appear least concerned about problems to common people,” he added.
A railways’ labour leader Muqadar Zaman blamed the nexus of politicians and senior railway officers for the destruction of Pakistan Railways that led to extreme inconvenience to people and said unless these people mend their ways, no improvement was possible in Railways.
Zaman, who is senior vice president of Railway Labour Union (Railway Mehnutkash Union), said that officers were enjoying all privileges while lower-grade employees were being denied their basic rights and their condition was compelling them to adopt unethical practices.
“For instance, employees and their families are being forced to travel in economy class instead of lower AC class as this class is being abolished from most of the trains. Now employees are being compelled to travel in economy class whose condition is getting bad to worse with each passing day” he added.
He demanded the authorities to improve travel conditions for everybody including ordinary passengers by arranging timely departures and arrivals of the trains and provide them hassle-free journeys.
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