Comfort & style: First business train chugs its way out of Lahore

[SHAMK9]

Just like the recent Saudi decision, Pakistan in the interest of a better aviation industry should open the domestic market to foreign airlines as well. These crapy domestic airlines have made domestic travel a nightmare !

i understand that u care about the industry bt that wud be stabbing local airlines in the back, shaheen and airblue r growing and let them, they already hav plans for new destinations and planes, give em a few years, if an airline doesnt makes its roots (domestic market) tough, it wont be able to survive internationally either, i dont know wt saudi arabian airlines is thinking

 

[livingdead]

Isn't air fare cheaper than this? Last time, I took a flight from Hyderabad to Delhi, it cost me 3500 rupees one way and 6000 round trip.

You are comparing airfare in INR with trainfare in PKR.
And last 3 years domestic fare in India is not as cheap as it used to be.
And in reality the airlines are all sick, they are lining up for money, so dont compare with their fake fares.
For short distance, trains are the way to go, they are greener too.

 

[TOPGUN]

Very nice and dandi but why not fix the problem for the poor first rather for the damn middle class if that class is even left in Pak or for the rich. Poor people are struggling while this bastard courpt gov has brought this trian to make money iam sorry i belive all those trians without engines and etc need to be put back in to service for the poor first then for others that can spend 5,000 -9,000 r .

 

[SHAMK9]

Very nice and dandi but why not fix the problem for the poor first rather for the damn middle class if that class is even left in Pak or for the rich. Poor people are struggling while this bastard courpt gov has brought this trian to make money iam sorry i belive all those trians without engines and etc need to be put back in to service for the poor first then for others that can spend 5,000 -9,000 r .

agreed, they need to focus on poor people instead of rich/elite

 

[IndoUS]

agreed, they need to focus on poor people instead of rich/elite

Whats a normal train fair in Pakistan??

Its mostly the poor/middle income people that travel in trains, so the Pakistani railway should focus on attracting the poor more than the rich.

 

[nalandapride]

agreed, they need to focus on poor people instead of rich/elite

Actually not fully agreed with you. Railways need to make some profit and should not live as an institution living on Alms. So, they need to care both about larger section of the population by providing affordable tickets and at the same time to run business and make profit increase in the quality of the service.

 

[livingdead]

Actually not fully agreed with you. Railways need to make some profit and should not live as an institution living on Alms. So, they need to care both about larger section of the population by providing affordable tickets and at the same time to run business and make profit increase in the quality of the service.

True. Also pakistan should heavily invest in railways so that running cost will go down and rich can cross subsidize the poor. Currently they have too few trains operating in pakistan. No airline industry can replace railways.
UK is investing in a new high speed train line, that will transform business in many places.

 

[American Pakistani]

 

[third eye]

Nothing like a good old rail travel, beats anything ....

ABOARD THE BUSINESS EXPRESS, Pakistan: A security guard pointing a gun at your chest may not be a perk of first-class travel in the West, but it’s all part of the service on Pakistan’s gleaming Business Express.

Thirteen carriages have been lovingly restored into a sleek sleeper to ply the 1,200 kilometres between Pakistan’s two biggest cities, Lahore and Karachi, on an 18-hour journey that once used to take upwards of 30 hours.

Presided over Friday by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, perhaps keen to front a good-news story as he faces contempt charges, and waved off by excited crowds it is Pakistan’s most luxurious and expensive train.

For 5,000 rupees one way, or 9,000 rupees return, passengers are waited on by a bevy of attentive stewards, as they settle down to watch films on flat-screen TVs or power up laptops.

Afternoon tea and piping hot dinner — courtesy of chefs at five-star hotels are borne into cabins as uniformed guards carrying rifles in the corridors are a reminder of a country troubled by kidnappings, Taliban and Al-Qaeda violence.

Then as night falls, stewards come round with crisp bed linen to turn slightly hard green bunks into inviting beds.

It’s all part of a first private investment of millions of rupees in the ailing state railways, billed as the last hope of preventing a much-loved relic of British rule from falling into ruin.

Corruption, mismanagement and neglect have driven Pakistan Railways to the brink.

Since Gilani’s government took power in 2008, the group has retired 104 of 204 trains in a country larger than Britain and Germany combined.

It relies on handouts of $2.8 million a month just to pay salaries and pensions, and faces expected losses of $390 million in the current fiscal year.

But the new train pulled away five minutes early and customers boarded from a brand-new business lounge at Lahore station. Decorated in tinsel, the engine then ground to a halt 10 minutes later to pick up more passengers.

Mariyam Imran, a strikingly beautiful young advisor for cosmetics firm L’Oreal, is delighted. A frequent traveller and terrified by a recent emergency landing on increasingly precarious state airline PIA, she is an avid convert.

“It’s beautiful. It’s relaxing, compared to the trains before. I’m so happy and very comfortable. The staff are good. It’s a marvellous train,” the 22-year-old young mother told AFP.

Travelling with her businessman husband, three-year-old daughter and sister-in-law they are heading to Karachi for a short break before returning to host a Valentine’s Day party at home in Lahore on February 14.

“I hate PIA. Oh my God, that emergency landing. Compared to the plane, this train is best. The service is very good.”

Gilani congratulated staff on what he called a “deluxe” and “state of the art” service that would serve as a trail blazer for future private-public partnerships capable of turning around Pakistan’s depressed economy.

“It’s a big, big initiative from the private sector, which we have welcomed with open arms,” Arif Azim, the chairman of Pakistan Railways, told AFP.

Years of decline saw customers flock to airlines and luxury coaches.

Azim hopes that if the Business Express, and a similar service to be rolled out on February 20 between Lahore, the textiles centre of Faisalabad and Karachi, are a success then investors will sink millions more into saving the railways.

“The sky’s the limit because we’re in a pretty bad shape. We need a totally new fleet. Seventy-five per cent of our wagons can be described as vintage,” he said.

Retired journalist Ishtiaq Ali is taking his young, second wife home after a two-week holiday to show her snow for the first time in Murree, a resort in Pakistan’s foot hills of the Himalayas.

“Oh my goodness, what the hell are you talking about,” he jokes when asked how the new train compares to the best rail services in the West.

“It’s impossible. There’s no education, there’s no security, there’s no insurance. In Pakistan, you can go outside and you can be held at gunpoint.”

It may not be a bullet train. It may not be the Orient Express, but his young wife smiles as she edges out of Lahore, speeding past clapped-out carriages shunted onto sidings.

 

[third eye]

Back on Track

Back on track – The Express Tribune

At last, some kind of effort seems to have been made to salvage what little remains of Pakistan Railways. The first luxury ‘business train’ to run between Lahore and Karachi, a private-public sector venture, was inaugurated by the prime minister, as it tooted off on its scheduled time of 3:30 pm from the Lahore Railway Station on February 3, cheered on by people collected at the tinsel-decorated platform. The train was schedule to reached the Karachi station in 18 hours. The service is to run simultaneously between Lahore and Karachi, with trains departing from both stations at 3:30 pm daily. Along the way, passengers paying Rs5,000 for a one-way ride will be able to enjoy flat screen TVs, wifi access, top-notch dining facilities and other mod cons which rival those seen anywhere in the world.

The private company MS Four Brothers, which entered into a deal with Pakistan Railways last year, has made a Rs225 million investment in the project and will pay Rs1.5 million per trip. This should help the disastrously cash-strapped entity gain some capital to help keep it afloat. Much depends, of course, on how successful the service is, and how efficiently it is run. In the past, experiments with ‘high quality’ trains — like the one which ran between Lahore and Rawalpindi — were made, but could not be sustained over the years due to mismanagement of resources and operational inefficiencies. The private interest involved this time round may help avoid this pitfall. Even so, there are still concerns regarding security and the quality of tracks and it is imperative that these potential gaps be overcome immediately for the venture to succeed. Undoubtedly, this is an exciting and highly useful venture for commuters in an age of soaring airfares. It is essential that it succeeds, given that it may represent the last hope to salvage Pakistan Railways, which over the past few years has —quite literally — been falling apart. The new service may just offer it a ray of hope, allowing it to scramble back onto the track from which it has effectively been derailed.

 

[Windjammer]

The Pak Business Express’s arrival 19 minutes before schedule at the Karachi Cantt Station. PHOTO: AFP

KARACHI: The Pak Business Express’s arrival 19 minutes before schedule at the Karachi Cantt Station seemed to be a miracle to not only for its passengers, but also for the station’s staff.
The train, running between Lahore and Karachi, is a joint venture of Pakistan Railways (PR) and M/S Four Brothers, a private company.
“I cannot believe that Pakistan Railways got me to my destination in time,” said Saeed Alam, a passenger who started his journey from Lahore on Friday. He was satisfied with the services provided by the staff on board as well. “The train provided almost all the facilities that were promised on the ticket. It is necessary for the train’s success that it retains these qualities, especially the time factor,” he said.
Alam added that PR had spent billions of rupees on starting new trains in the past, but those projects had failed because they never operated on schedule. He voiced hope that with the private company at its back, the train should prove to be better than its predecessors.
Pak Business Express’s manager for the south, Saeed Islam, said that the train, with its total of 13 coaches and a capacity of 500 people, fetched 350 passengers and crew on its maiden trip to Karachi. He shared a bit of trivia as well: the coaches were taken from the Karakoram Express, and then renovated.
For Rs5,000 (one-way) and Rs9,000 (return journey), passengers can enjoy LCD TV, Wifi internet and fast food. Each coach has a security guard, sweeper, three hosts and is equipped with security cameras. The paramedical staff of Rescue 1122 are always on hand in case of a medical emergency. The train covers the 1,200-kilometre journey in 18 hours, while making stops at Khanewal and Rohri. Other PR trains cover the same distance in more than 30 hours.
The private company invested Rs225 million in the project, and will get 12% of the revenue generated by the train.
The road home
The train departed from Karachi back to Lahore at 3:30 pm. While speaking to the media at Cantt Station, the federal minister for railways Ghulam Ahmad Bilour said that they had high expectations as it would help businessmen and industrialists who travel frequently from Karachi to Lahore. He added that they planned to restart the Shalimar Express from February 15 and were trying to improve the Karakoram Express.
Responding to a question about his ministry, he said that he was here to stay and he would resign if someone tried to change his portfolio. “If I don’t have any engines, how can I run the ministry?” he said. “It is impossible.”
On December 19, 2010, the federal cabinet agreed to give us Rs11.1 billion out of which Rs6.1 billion was supposed to be spent on locomotives, said Bilour. “Unfortunately, we have not received a single rupee of the grant.” He added that there were no engines and the condition of the railways had worsened. While speaking at a press conference on Saturday, he said that if they had received the money, they would have had 100 locomotives at their disposal. He added that they were working on projects to improve the system.
He inaugurated four cargo trains. The first one was bound for Lal Pir and was carrying 26 oil tankers while the other three were on their way to Machi Goth. While talking about a partnership with private companies, he said that it would not have been possible to complete a project like the Pak Business Express without it.
Rallies and demonstrations
The Rail Bachao Ittehad (RBI) held a protest against the new venture at Cantt Station.
The protesters said that they charged passengers Rs3,500 while the new train was charging them Rs5,000 out of which Rs1,500 was for food. RBI’s Syed Shahid Iqbal said that by charging so much for food, they were forcing people to eat.
He added that this was the first step towards privitising the railways and this would affect the running trains. The protesters met Bilour to discuss their problems. He told them that all railway contract employees who were hired till December 31, 2011, would become permanent employees.

Great expectations: First business train arrives 19 minutes before time – The Express Tribune

 

[true_indian]

You are comparing airfare in INR with trainfare in PKR.
And last 3 years domestic fare in India is not as cheap as it used to be.
And in reality the airlines are all sick, they are lining up for money, so dont compare with their fake fares.
For short distance, trains are the way to go, they are greener too.

I traveled last month. For round trip, it didn't even cost me 6000 rupees INR. Hardly 1.5 hours of travel. I prefer that. I am guessing distance between HYD and Delhi is longer than between Lahore and Karachi.

 

[T90TankGuy]

nice to see the railways being spruced up . any one can elaborate if they have started regular services ? i heard they had canceled a lot of trains because of lack of funds.

 

[SQ8]

Privatize railways.. and PIA.
Then watch how they skyrocket into the most profitable organizations of Pakistan.

 

[v9s]

Privatize railways.. and PIA.
Then watch how they skyrocket into the most profitable organizations of Pakistan.

Oh trust me when I say PIA is extremely profitable. The management is corrupt to the core. They "reinvest" the profits in the govt and show artificial losses. The number of PPP jiyalas employed in PIA should give you a hint.