Pakistan Railways, A Sinking Ship

[Decent_6Chora]

Re: Pakistan Railways, A Sinking Ship

No Mr. Rocket Scientist my point was that your PPP govt has done NOTHING to save PR from this. Fact that you are highlighting that railways earned highest revenue in 2008/2009 is actually further embarrassing for PPP govt as it could not even stop the slide with highest revenue earned.

I am not asking about the reasons of PR slide I am talking about what your govt is doing from last 4 years to stop this down-hill slide of PR? 4 years is a considerable period to at least stop down-slide if not making it better. Oh yeah Zardari has bigger challenges than PR right? same lame excuse…

PS: Seems like its too much for your to hold a discussion without calling names but then we cant blame you. What else should we expect from Jiyalia eh?

@sachaydino

I LOL on your stupid knowledge about the railways. If you don’t know abc of Pakistan Railways it is better to avoid brain farting. Before you write anything nonsese like above read the history of Pakistan Railway carefully and see the real causes of failure rather than proving yourself as stupid. Look at the earnings though report says it was also not upto the mark but Railway earned highest revenue during 2008-2009. Read as follows:

http://pc.gov.pk/feg/PDFs/role of connectivity in growth strategy of pakistan.pdf

3.2 Rail Transport

Railways all over the world have an edge in long haul and mass scale transportation of both
goods and passengers. In Pakistan, it was the primary mode of transport till seventies. Since
then its share has declined due to the shift in government’s preference towards road over rail
transport. During 2005-10, budgetary expenditure on railways was only rupees 45.5 billion
whereas for national highways it stood at rupees 155 billion (GoP, 2010). Today railway’s share
of inland traffic has reduced from 41 percent to 10 percent for passenger and 73 percent to 4
percent for freight traffic.

Timely and safe delivery of goods to the North from the port, in the South, became a major
issue after the shift in preferences of policy-makers. After the creation of National Logistic Cell
(NLC) to clear the goods from Karachi port, Pakistan Railways (PR) has always found it difficult
to regain its historical position. This has further pushed PR backward. Since 1990-91, total track
length has decreased from 8,775 to 7,791 kilometers. Similarly total freight and passengers
carried has decreased from 5,709 to 3,925 million tones and 84.9 to 58.9 millions, respectively.

However in the last decade, PR has shown some encouraging trend in both passenger and
freight businesses registering an average increase of 3.2 percent and 4 percent per annum,
respectively. A significant reduction in businesses during the last year has been attributed to
economic slowdown and security problems. There has also been a shortage of locomotives due
to non procurement of spare parts. Much of the rolling stock destroyed during December 2007
riots is still to be repaired. This delay has been mainly due to reduction in PSDP allocation and
poor domestic facilities. Majority of the recently acquired engines from China are also facing
maintenance issues which has lead to closure of various routes.

Table 2: Earnings of Pakistan Railways
Fiscal Year Earnings
(Rs. Million)
% Change
1998-99 9,310 –
1999-00 9,889 6.2
2000-01 11,938 20.7
2001-02 13,046 9.3
2002-03 14,812 13.5
2003-04 14,636 -1.2
2004-05 18,027 23.2
2005-06 18,184 0.9
2006-07 19,194 5.5
2007-08 19,973 4.1
2008-09 23,160 16.0
2009-10
(July- March)
16,875 -3.3
Earnings are still really low and are hardly
enough to cover the cost of pays and
pensions which equal rupees 14 billion and
7 billion per annum, respectively. In 2008-
09, earnings grew by 16 percent compared
to the year before but since then they have
worsened to pre-2004 levels (Table 2).
Despite improved performance during the
last decade, losses still remain high. In
2006-07, total loss was Rs 10 billion and in
2007-08, the loss was over Rs 12 billion.