Despite a bad experience of running a "Business Train" under a private company which is defaulting millions of rupees to Pakistan Railways (PR), the management of PR is going to privatise another passenger train this month. Criticising the move, sources claimed that the Railways management was adamant on privatising the train despite experiencing a setback from another private firm running 'Business Train'.
However, Karachi Division's Railways officials claimed that the passenger train would be run by a private company, Air Rail Service (ARS) (Pvt) Ltd, which is already running 'Shalimar Express" on Lahore-Karachi route. They claimed that the ARS management was performing better than the firm running the 'Business Train'. The private firm, they said, would also invest in renovation, repair and maintenance work under a public-private partnership.
According to sources, the new train service would be renamed as 'Shalimar-II', adding that the train would have all modern facilities such as air-conditioning, sophisticated seats and a mobile restaurant similar to the one being run on Pakistan Business Express train. The train is likely to be inaugurated by the end of this month in Lahore. The train will not offer fare concession to railways' employees and others.
The private firm, sources said, would also make security arrangements on the train, while Railways would provide fuel and drivers. According to the new schedule, the Shalimar Express-II train would depart daily from Karachi at 5pm. Terming it another move towards privatisation of Pakistan Railways, Muqadar Zaman of the Railways Mazdoor Union said that employees had resolved not to allow the railways to go into the hands of profit-crazy private companies at the behest of World Bank and other international credit agencies.