KARACHI: “Starting its journey from Karachi, the special Eid train will touch Hyderabad, Rohri, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur and Khanewal to reach its final stop — Lahore,” it was announced over the loudspeakers on platform number one of the cantonment railway station, where the first such train awaited departure on Saturday morning.

The train was scheduled to leave at 11am sharp as passengers boarded its bogies while a few others raced to the nearest shop on the platform to buy some extra few bottles of water.

“Only one fan! It’s going to be a hot and humid journey,” muttered an elderly woman while looking out her window as she settled in while also gesturing to someone outside to hand her the rest of her stuff through the window.

A shopkeeper quickly changed the arrangement on his counter to fit in the neatly-folded hand towels and was rewarded for it almost immediately by finding customers who bought one to wipe off sweat from their arms and forehead.

“There’s nothing special about this ‘special’ Eid train,” sisters Rizwana Hassan and Sumaira Ansar repeated one after the other. The sisters were visiting their parents in Lahore for Eid. Between them they had seven children travelling along with them.

“Above the berths in the bogies, they have one little fan instead of two. The spot for the only other fan has wires hanging out. We paid Rs1,520 per ticket. What for I am wondering,” said Sumaira, the older of the two sisters.

“I see one light. Hope that works. It’s a chhakra [run-down] train!” Rizwana added while gathering her stuff before boarding.

Zeeshan Ahmed Shamsi, another passenger with a grim face, commented: “The bogies look tired. Now it remains to be seen how the train runs.”

Mr Shamsi was going back home. “I live in Lahore and was in Karachi on business. It’s good that Pakistan Railway has these special Eid trains, as I was able to get a seat without hassle, but they should also take care to make our journey comfortable,” he said.

“I am travelling with my wife and our three little kids. It will be okay when the train moves but it would be miserable when it makes its stops,” thought aloud Mohammad Aqeel who had bought tickets worth Rs1,320 up to Khanewal. “We are heading to Vehari. So after getting off at Khanewal, we’ll take a bus to Vehari,” he shared with Dawn.

Another family was travelling to Okara for Eid where they said they would also be travelling by bus. The children, Ziryab and Aimen, were looking forward to seeing their cousins there and said that they had packed plenty of gifts for them.

Nazeeran, a mother was accompanying her newly-married daughter to Lahore. “I can’t let her travel alone. I’ll just drop Beenish with her husband, Afzal, and be right back, perhaps on another Eid train from there, to be with the rest of my family here,” she said.

“The problem with this Eid train is that all its bogies are economy class,” said Manzoor Razi, chairman of the Railway Workers Union. “There are 11 bogies in all while an engine has enough strength to pull some 18 bogies. Therefore, there could have been additional rail-road cars, especially air-conditioned ones,” he said.

Meanwhile, most of the trains seemed empty. Divisional Commercial Officer of Pakistan Railway Nasir Nazeer explained that they had bookings for over 700 and while from Cantt there were only around 200 boarding, more passengers would be joining at the other stations where the train would be making its stops. “There is a quota of passengers for each station,” he said.

Asked whether there was any concession for the elderly passengers in the Eid train, he said that normally they offered 50 per cent off for passengers above the age of 65 though that was not the case for the special train. “There is no discount for the Eid train as this is a special train to facilitate the travel,” he said.

About the absence of air-conditioned bogies in the train, he said that there weren’t so many passengers that travelled in those so they decided not to have the AC cars in the special trains which will be running until July 16.

When informed that some passengers were complaining that they could find nothing special about the ‘special’ train, he smiled and said that the time for it to leave the station on the dot at 11am was special. “It is also a very fast train that will reach Lahore by 5am on Sunday, which the passengers should also appreciate,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2015

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