At transcendental practice in Pakistan Railways has been noticed as trains having least stops, additional section speed arrive at destination in more time against those having more stops and less section speed. Despite repair of the railway track and increase in section speed, the trains were taking more time than the schedule time raising a question mark on performance of the officers responsible for making time table besides resulting in addition fuel consumption causing loss of millions of rupees to the national exchequer. During a research conducted by INP News Agency, it was revealed that though condition of railway tracks has been improved besides enhancing the section speed but despite all this, the trains arrive at the destination with hours of delays. The Railway Headquarter and Division held each other responsible for constituting the time table of trains and avoided to disclose the reasons for delay of trains.

Time table of trains with special focus on Mehar Express, Thal Express and Attock Passenger having same route from Bisal Junction to Daudkhel extended over 121 kilometers, was scrutinized during the investigation At the time of constituting time table, the section speed from Bisal to Jand was 50 kilometer and Jand to Daudkhel was 40 kilometer per hour and this section lying between Attock and Kotri was named as ML2. The running time of Attock Passenger on 121 kilometer Daudkhel to Bisal Junction with 12 stops is three hours one minute, running time of Thal Express with seven stops is 3 hours and 42 minutes, while running time of Mehar Express on the same track is 3 hours and 36 minutes. In response to date shared by INP with Peshawar Division and PR Headquarter, they denied that it was not true that the train which has least stops arrives the destination earlier than other.

The Peshawar Division was of the opinion that Thal Express has 10 coaches while Attock Railcar has seven coaches due to which Attock passenger despite having more stops takes less time to reach the destination. However, the PRs Engineers turned down the opinion saying that number of coaches of passenger trains having same section speed don’t affect the running time and difference of 42 minutes was beyond recognition. During scrutiny of Rawalpindi Division’s Golara-Bisal junction extended over 76 kilometer, it was learnt that the section speed of the train was 70 kilometer per hour. As per Pakistan Railways official website when you travel on said route through Mehar Express, it takes 1 hour and 16 minutes to reach the destination. Though Rawalpindi Division has removed all speed restrictions other than one on the respective track, official running time of Mehar Express between Golra Sharif and Bisal Junction is 1 hour and 33 minutes. The official running time of Kohat Express on the same track is 1 hour and 34 minutes.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)