Pakistan Railways: End of a journey?
Steam engine on display at Karachi Cantt. Station. -Photo by Vaqar Ahmed
Railway stations and rail journeys are stuff dream, fantasies, adventure and endless stories are made of. Rail journeys are an apt paradigm for life itself; there is a beginning, then as you progress both the scenery and the fellow travelers change. Some that you yearn to stay, step off too soon at their own destinations; and some that you have to suffer on pain of death stay with you for the rest of your long journey.
Some fellow travelers become friends for life, some other just a fleeting snapshot in time. At each stop there is the anticipation of new itinerants. During all this, the landscape changes from flat lands to plateaus to lush green fields to wastelands, to high mountains and fearsome black tunnels. Sometime when you are brave enough to lean out of the window you can see both the head and tail of the train. For a moment, things fall in place only to hurtle you moments later into the darkness and confusion of a pitch-dark tunnel. There is endless anticipation, endless mystery: life running fast forward in time.
Quetta Railway Station 1890. -Photo courtesy Wikimedia Common
A Bridge on the Chappar Rift in Balochistan Circa1890. –Photo courtesy Wikimedia Common
A charter train (with engines at both rear and front) about to depart from Shahgai and descend out of the Khyber Pass to Jumrud, near Peshawar (1993). -Photo courtesy Wikimedia Common
Sukkur Barrage Bridge over the mighty Indus. According to folklore the graves (in the foreground) belong to the seven female friends who lived together and decided never to marry. –Photograph courtesy Wikimedia Commons
I remember well the journey I undertook as a child from Quetta to Rawalpindi. The train cut across the barren mountains and through bone-dry places with chilling names like “Aab-e-Gum” (Vanished Water), charged headlong into the dark, unending, fearsome, Sibi Tunnel – the longest in Asia. Three black as night steam engines, one in the front and two at the rear, worked their heart out to pull the carriages through the steep mountains. The night was spent rocking through the icy cold deserts with the staccato of the wheels on the rails as a perfect lullaby. The silence was broken only by the shrill sound of the train whistle warning all to move out of the way or meet certain destruction.
After crossing the mighty Indus on the steel behemoth called the Sukkur Barrage Bridge, the train whistled through the green plains of Punjab, adorned in places by the bright yellow sunflowers, over shimmering rivers and finally curved through the endless rolling plateaus and ravines to reach Rawalpindi. This was a childhood adventure that will stay in the realm of my fondest memories, never repeated but forever told to my jet setting children.
The Mazar-e-Railway. No trains, no passengers. –Photo by Vaqar Ahmed
Fast-forwarding from1968 to 2012, the dream world of railway travel has turned into a nightmare. No whistling, chugging, screaming, black monsters called steam engines; these have been scrapped and melted down for steel. One stands silent and still at the Karachi Cantonment Station as if mourning the passage of an era of mystery, reveries and hope. Tracks and locomotives are rusting away or pulled out of service due to a lack of maintenance. The few that work often stand idle due to a lack of fuel. The journeys start late or never. And if they do start, they end mostly late or never. Passengers are sprawled on platform, waiting, forever waiting. The schedule information board is turned off, as even the pretense of any schedule is pointless. The waiting game has started and who knows when it will end.
No train, no passengers, no work for the boys in red. –Photo by Vaqar Ahmed
When will the train leave and when will they get home? God only knows! –Photo by Vaqar Ahmed
Those who take the train are considered by those who have never seen the inside of a train carriage to be cattle, and since cattle are never in a hurry to get anywhere except to the abattoir, it does not matter if their 24 hour journey takes 76 hours. The non-cattle variety shuns the rail and travels by air only to sometimes find their cocoon crashing head-on into the Margalla Hills or plunging to the ground in a ball of fire. It is a not so subtle reminder that when the malaise of mismanagement, corruption and sheer indifference spreads, it makes no distinction between sheep and humans and trains and planes.
Uncomfortable and more dangerous bus travel has replaced the dead railways. –Photo by Vaqar Ahmed
OK, don’t worry take the bus a.k.a sardine cans, a.k.a death traps, where your knees keep your chin intimate company through out the journey. After all, we started our lives in a fetal position. So what if some of these decorated tin cans with wheels end up in a deep ditch or a river or are crushed into an undefined jumble of steel, flesh and bones in a head-on collision.
Unreliable and Reliable modes of Transport (the later in the foreground). –Photo by Vaqar Ahmed
I say bring back the horses, the camels, and the hardy donkeys that so loyally served our great forebears for centuries. Reliable, low maintenance and low fuel cost. And why even this dependence? What happened to traveling by foot? It is just a short jaunt of six months from Karachi to Khyber.
Travel tiredness or life tiredness? An old man sleeping at Cantt. Railway Station. –Photo by Vaqar Ahmed
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus famously said, “You cannot step in to the same river twice”. I am sure if he had seen the Pakistan Railways of yesteryears and that of today he would have said “You cannot step into the same train twice”. Well, because that train is no more.
The author is an engineer turned part-time journalist who likes to hang out at unfashionable places like shrines, railway stations and bus stops.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
Lovely photos these.
The steam locomotives have been retired in India as well.
So many pleasant hours on NWR, then PR, in the 50s, 60s and 70s…so go the railways, so goes Pakistan, sic transit
ask Mr. Bilour the railway minister , who has enough money to give away for the cause he likes and thinks important . may be he doesn’t know how bad the situation of Pakistan Railway is and it really needs some money to run and good administration.
Where does all that money come from?
Also ask him why is he running a fleet of buses. How can he hold an important ministry when his personal businesses are in direct conflict with what he does.
How can he make railways successful and also maintain a fleet of buses. Conflict of interest plain and simple.
Train is one of the most romentic way to travel in hills & planes. Necessary steps must be take for the revival of paksitan railways.
Trains are a such a great way to connect & build a nation.It is surprising how Pakistan Railway has come to such a sorry state.
There is simply no reason why Railways shouldnt be successful in any country. Moreover Pakistan had the luxury of an existing railway infrastructure in 1947 so no major investment was required. The demise defies all logic.
I am great railway enthusiast and it breaks my heart to see the current state of Pakistan Railways. I have been using rails for several decades but things have never been this bad. Someone should have a bounty of some kind on Mr Bilour…
Train watchers from Britain used to travel to India and Pakistan to ride the old steam locomotive driven trains and to look at them in the railway yards.
what can i say about our administrations credibilities, and in this case how much can we criticize or even abuse Mr. Bashir Baloor, nothing works for them & they r on a stage that they’r immune of everything….Such small petty things don’t mean anything to them….
And about the future of our institutions & Pakistan, i see it as a failure, as the fault is not in a specific group of people like the ruling class, nearly each and everyone of us is corrupt….. And as much as we get our chance, we don’t miss it…. But just keep criticizing the big crocs….
Some one tell me PLEASE What happen to my p a k I s t a n.
Shame on hounarable Mr Bilour for completely destroying an asset and backbone of infrastructure. This makes him either extremely corrupt or extremely incompetent.
Hi,
Are there no/minimal railways in Pakistan? How then people travel across different parts.
Or I didn’t got the correct msg from this article?
Wouldn’t that be dishonorable Mr. Bilour?
Railways are the life line of any country. THey could learn the management of it from their neighbours who have an extensive network system. third largest in the world.
The description is so heart touching.. Pakistan Railways has some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. Now, thanks to some corrupt politicians of Pakistan, the railways have virtually come to a standstill. What can be more pathetic than this? As a well-wisher Indian, I can only hope and pray that Pakistan Railways manages to chug along in the days to come. Pakistan’s citizens must ensure that they vote for the best people in the coming elections.
Not to worry. The old engines will be put back after the revolution :O)
What an article that brings tears in every rail fan.In India where modern technology has taken over most of the lines having fast trains that run on high tech engines and locomotives, one misses the old days when trains were simple, ran on steam and gave plenty of time to explore places while waiting for the connecting train.While no one has the time nowadays PR must bring back train connectivity all over the country.How can there be a country w/o railways which is so much of fun to travel?
Anyone who has not traveled with the Pakistan Railways so far must do so ASAP because PR is an endangered species. Also, the govt. is requested to change its name to BILOUR Railways. In future, you will visit ruins of PR and find an engine like you see one in Madain Saleh ( 300 km north of Madina Munawwara ) of the Hijaz Railways from Turkey to Madinah in the early 20th century.
in the 1800s the British knew that sub continent needs railway and canal system. Its a shame that after centuries our leaders still don’t know. When i was a child i use to imagine traveling in train as i use to watch it on TV in remote Gilgit city but now i live in Lahore and i even won’t go to see the train. There is nothing left except the scrap.
Unforgettable memories rich with peace, love, affectionate and sincerity to people and country. May Allah bring back same a.s.a.p.
Beautiful prose, absolutely magnificent photographs. Please keep contributing more thoughts and photos of the railways and other places you have been. Thank you so much. Quite a remarkable mind.
We needed to learn this lesson, feel the pain of failure, of ruining our own country. I hope in the past 65 years and 5 years in particular we’ve learnt some lessons. Otherwise, the next 65 years will be worse.
great article. coming from a railway family i know what u mean. good work buddy