The profit-loss figures of Lahore’s Orange Line Metro Train service are discouraging. Pakistan’s first metro train started its commercial operation on Oct 24, 2020, and in less than four months, its profits show a declining trend due mainly to losing attraction for commuters, as it is being used by 60% less commuters than its capacity. It’s proving a sort of white elephant for the exchequer. Of course, someone is gaining from the metro train’s losses. One man’s loss, they say, is another’s gain.
The train service is suffering losses due to shortage of buses on feeder routes along the local trains’ tracks. It was planned to run 180 buses on 11 feeder routes. Between Oct 25, 2020 to Feb 3 this year, the service has collected Rs282 million in fares from more than seven million commuters, and it has used electricity worth Rs353 million. It has failed to meet the daily target relating to commuters’ intake due to lack of feeder buses and reducing the number of private buses along the route and also due to the coronavirus pandemic. In order to draw more commuters, the Mass Transit Authority proposed to slash the train service fare from Rs40 to Rs30. The provincial transport minister reportedly described the proposal as unfeasible, saying reducing the fare would not help increase the revenue. He termed the present situation disappointing, and reportedly said all proposals so far put forward by MTA officials failed to give the desired results. He asserted that he would agree to the fare cut proposal only if officials guaranteed that it would improve the revenue.
Observers, conversant with how state-owned entities usually run in the red, ascribe the depressing scenario to plotting by private bus operators to fail the metro train service. They allegedly enjoy the support and blessings of corrupt officials and politicians. It’s surprising how underground railways are functioning successfully in other countries. It is chiefly because commuters guard them jealously.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 8th, 2021.
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