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Pakistan Railway Projects.

I like Sheikh Rashid as a politician but I feel he isn't the right man for railways. His entire focus on railways has been to increase number of trains rather than improving service, efficiency and punctuality. We need an educated person to bring wholistic changes.
 
Railways Minister inaugurates new freight train in Karachi

October 03, 2019

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Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed inaugurated new washing yard and a new freight train in Karachi on Thursday. Addressing the inauguration ceremony, he said during the first year of incumbent government, the traffic of freight train has been doubled while the number of passenger of Pakistan Railways has also been increased.

The Minister vowed the speed of the passenger train will also be enhanced to 200 kilometers per hour. He said new signal system on the railways lines is also being launched soon.
 
I hope while they rebuild main line 1 and the other lines, they switch to standard gauge, so that we can send freight via rail through Iran to Europe, and not have to modify Chinese trains.

If Pakistan does go for 200 kph trains, IMHO it will most likely be the CRH6 Design; top speed 200 kph
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Railway_CRH6


here is a video of it running
 
I like Sheikh Rashid as a politician but I feel he isn't the right man for railways. His entire focus on railways has been to increase number of trains rather than improving service, efficiency and punctuality. We need an educated person to bring wholistic changes.

Agreed. But while he is Railways minister, He would probably be better of focus on revenue earning freight supply chain, and after that on passenger service. Superior passenger satisfaction should be his goal for passenger transportation. His competition is local bus companies for now, and in the future foreign tourist destinations.

Key metrics should be:
Service at the station
Service on and state of the train
ease of booking a ticket
Food on the trains
on time performance
and the transition from train to other modes of transportation (like Buses and planes, but also local taxis and people's personal cars) to maximize efficiency and lower the cost of living so people can spend money on other things in the economy.

If he can improve the railways in these regards, Pakistan can win tourists to visit our country. Foreigners will put up with old trains and the weather, but not a dirty place that is mis-managed. He should commission studies of other nations domestic and international tourists; such as Egypt and Bangkok and India.

For Service Quality, He can commission studies from East Asian countries like China, Japan, and South Korea. On thing China does is allow passengers to order food on the train, and they we get fresh restaurant quality food delivered to them at their next stop. This means better food quality, fresh, hot, and with proper plates and cutlery, but it also means you don't need and entire Bl**dy coach on the train to cook food.


Now here is a more detailed review on How even with modern trains in China, People, especially foreign tourists notice the quality of services. BTW check out the train stations. Pakistan should get Public Private partnerships to rebuild or expand the train stations with the Bus companies. They can move their bus station to or near the train station and then connect them with an express bus service. (also connecting to a near by airport will help for high end or foreign traveler)

Then money can be concentrated to build airport quality stations the buses and trains share. If private companies invest, because it will be like a Mall, then they will get back money from stores, and they will know they will have guaranteed foot traffic. Its win win for all. If we can make these reforms and these quality modernization on the service side, then we can maximize when we get high speed trains and more foreign tourists.


Btw, also watch these two documentaries to see how improvements were made in Britain. Its not world class if you most Brits, but it is a Railway run on some kind of limited budget that is heavily used, and overs most of its cost. Its a model to study.
 
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ML-1 Railway Project to be completed in Three Phases in the Next Five Years

The hurdles in the path of Pakistan Railway's long-awaited flagship project, Main Line-1, have been apparently been overcome, renewing hopes of revamping the country's dilapidated train infrastructure of the colonial era.

ML-1, which is expected to be executed at a cost of $8.2 billion in five years, has been cleared by the Ministry of Planning and Development, after Railways Minister Shiekh Rashid expressed his reservations over the slow progress of this strategically important project under the China-#akistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

On his recent visit to China, the railways minister announced in Beijing that the ML-1 project had been finalised. Railways Chief Executive Officer Aijaz Ahmad Buriro said he was hopeful that the project would start materialising soon. "The framework of the project has already been signed and we have already sent its PC-1 to the Ministry of Planning and Development," Buriro said told The Express Tribune.

"It is an important project for us as its completion will help us manage train operations smoothly for the next 150 years," he added.
 
ML-1 Railway Project to be completed in Three Phases in the Next Five Years

The hurdles in the path of Pakistan Railway's long-awaited flagship project, Main Line-1, have been apparently been overcome, renewing hopes of revamping the country's dilapidated train infrastructure of the colonial era.

ML-1, which is expected to be executed at a cost of $8.2 billion in five years, has been cleared by the Ministry of Planning and Development, after Railways Minister Shiekh Rashid expressed his reservations over the slow progress of this strategically important project under the China-#akistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

On his recent visit to China, the railways minister announced in Beijing that the ML-1 project had been finalised. Railways Chief Executive Officer Aijaz Ahmad Buriro said he was hopeful that the project would start materialising soon. "The framework of the project has already been signed and we have already sent its PC-1 to the Ministry of Planning and Development," Buriro said told The Express Tribune.

"It is an important project for us as its completion will help us manage train operations smoothly for the next 150 years," he added.
I hope local steel manufactures get a piece of this project
 
The ML-1 project is of significant strategic importance as it will connect all major military centers with dual railway line on which cargo rail will move at 120 km/hour speed!


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I hope while they rebuild main line 1 and the other lines, they switch to standard gauge, so that we can send freight via rail through Iran to Europe, and not have to modify Chinese trains.

If Pakistan does go for 200 kph trains, IMHO it will most likely be the CRH6 Design; top speed 200 kph
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Railway_CRH6


here is a video of it running
sheikh sahab wanted to do that but this was refused and alot of resistance happened ultimately it was decided not to go this way
 
sheikh sahab wanted to do that but this was refused and alot of resistance happened ultimately it was decided not to go this way
Why was it refused who are these people that are still slaves of their British masters?.
 
because of huge stock we have of already existing engines on broad gauage
So let me get this straight. They refused to climb on the same stage the rest of the world is on because of a few old tin cans that they call train engines?

High treason, that's what that is
 
24 HOURS TRAIN RIDE IN PAKISTAN (Karachi to Islamabad)
REVIEW BY Michael Gerber


 
ML-I to get back on track as govt removes bottlenecks

October 20, 2019

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Representational image of railway tracks. PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD: The multibillion-dollar Main Line-I (ML-I) project of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) may soon be back on track as the federal government has finally decided to take around $9 billion loans on its books, which will address a key bottleneck in securing financing for the much-delayed scheme.

The Pakistani authorities have also decided to approve the project as one umbrella scheme instead of granting phase-wise approval, according to the government sources. The Ministry of Railways will now submit the umbrella PC-I document, having an estimated cost of around $9 billion, by October 31 for consideration of the Ministry of Planning, they added.

The status of the ML-I project was also discussed during a meeting between Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Bajwa, Railways Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmad and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The project was discussed in detail during the Joint Working Group (JWG) on transport infrastructure meeting that was held on October 10 and 11 in Islamabad. Pakistan’s Communication Secretary Jawwad Rafique Malik and the Chinese Ministry of Transport Chief Planner Wang Zhiqing co-chaired the meeting. The JWG meeting was held ahead of the upcoming Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) of the CPEC meeting that will vet these decisions.

The Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Planning and Development have taken decisions about financing modalities and project approval strategy in consultation with the Ministry of Railways after the prime minister fixed October 31 deadline to approve the project. However, an earlier similar deadline by the premier was not honoured by the Ministry of Planning.

Initially estimated to be completed at a cost of $8.2 billion, the ML-I project was part of the early harvest projects of the CPEC. Since the beginning, the project has been facing delays due to a dispute over the nature of Chinese loans.

The ML-I project has been conceived for rehabilitation and upgrade of the Karachi-Lahore-Peshawar railway track, having a total length of 1,872 kilometres. It will double the entire track from Karachi to Peshawar and the speed of passenger trains will be increased from 65-110km per hour to 160km per hour

The freight trains will operate at a speed of 120km per hour after rehabilitation. There will be a computer-based signaling and control system.

The Ministry of Finance desired sovereign loans, which would have shifted the debt servicing and repayment responsibility on the non-existent shoulders of the Ministry of Railways. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has capped the stock of sovereign guarantees at Rs1.6 trillion besides banning the issuance of new guarantees during this fiscal year, which limited the government choices.

The railway’s ministry was in favour of a central loan that would transfer the debt payment responsibility on the shoulders of the federal government.

The government officials said that a high-level financing committee for the ML-I project has decided to take the central loan. The decision was taken after the debt sustainability analysis of the project showed that it would not have adverse implications for the country’s overall debt position. The analysis was based on the assumption that China would be formally requested to approve a minimum eight-year grace period and around 20 years repayment period for the loan, according to the officials.

Pakistan’s Financing Committee would, “promote the project financing and commencing formal loan negotiations for timely completion of ML-I project and requested constitution of a similar committee by the Chinese side to commence formal loan negotiations,” according to the minutes of the JWG on transport infrastructure meeting.

The minutes further underlined, “Pakistani side expressed that PC-I of this project, as per latest instructions of the Planning Commission, would be submitted by October 31 and would be approved expeditiously as per directives of the prime minister of Pakistan.”

The officials said that now an umbrella PC-I would be submitted to the planning ministry for approval of the Central Development Working Party and Executive Committee of National Economic Council.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had earlier decided to split the project into three phases besides reducing its scope. The ML-I is the only project of CPEC that has been declared “strategically important” by both China and Pakistan but it has already faced a delay of at least four years. The railway’s ministry had estimated the cost of package-I of the project at $2.4 billion, which will now be merged with the umbrella project.

Planning Secretary Zafar Hasan had told a parliamentary committee a couple of months back that at the time of making PSDP 2019-20, there was a thinking that the ML-I project might not be taken up in this fiscal year. He had also said that there was also a flaw in the ML-I framework agreement, which put financing issues at the end instead of taking it up upfront.

But it now seems that that the government has decided to revive the project after keeping it at backburner for over a year.

The JWG minutes further underlined that both China and Pakistan decided that the Pakistani side will complete the PC-I approval process and formulation of bidding documents at the earliest to lay the foundation for the next step towards financing negotiation. It was also decided that the project financing proposal will be reported to JCC for deliberation that will meet next month.

Once these formalities are fulfilled, the government may begin work on the mainline-I project by January or February next year, they added.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20th, 2019.
 

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