In memory of Pakistan Railways

The only solution to a corrupt, inefficient, daily deteriorating rail network in Pakistan, is a phased privatisation.

It was the year 1858 and Sir Henry Frere, as chief commissioner of Sindh, sought to improve the trade links of the newly developed port of Karachi with the rest of the province and beyond and proposed the import of something which was still a new concept in Britain — the railway. Thus, Sir Henry Frere became the father of the railway network in the Indian Empire, just as he had founded the modern postal system in India in 1851.

Frere’s dream was realised when the first railway line was opened between Karachi and Kotri, a distance of 169 kilometres, on May 13, 1861. By the 1880’s, several lines had been established and four private companies owned the whole network in northern India. Suspicion of commercialisation, security considerations, and hopes for greater efficiency led the secretary of state for India, to purchase these four companies in 1885 and consolidate them into the North Western Railways (NWR), a nomenclature which would survive the Raj and only get rechristened in 1961 as Pakistan Railways.

In 1947, Pakistan inherited almost the whole of the NWR, with 8,122 km of route track, hundreds of locomotives and a sprawling network of railway schools, hospitals and recreation facilities. The NWR was not just a railway network; it was a holistic organisation which provided for every need of its employees. However, like a number of other institutions we inherited from the British, we have run this once exemplary organisation into the ground. It will not surprise anyone that, according to the 2011 yearbook of Pakistan Railways, the route kilometres have come down to 7,791. No surprise again that the Pakistan Railways yearbook only notes four instances of track extension and improvement since 1947 and obviously does not mention the scores of line closures. Pakistan Railways lost over Rs5.6 billion last year and, at the moment, does not even have the money to pay salaries to its employees.

But let me not depress you more with statistics showing the pitiable state of our railways, where we cannot even afford to run several trains any longer, but suggest a way forward.

The British railways system, like its daughter system in India, was also mainly run by private companies. These private companies ran the railway network till 1948, when the Labour government nationalised the four main railway companies because it wanted the railway to become a public good — available to everyone at cheap prices and run with a consumer focus, rather than a commercial angle. However, by the 1980’s it was clear that the government could not sustain the organisation’s efficiency and low cost, and in order to keep railway relevant in the modern fast-paced world, it had to be left to market forces. Hence, after almost 50 years of government control, British Rail was denationalised and broken up into a number of private run companies who now run the network according to public demand, efficiency and, obviously, profit. Of course this privatisation has meant that certain less profitable and loss-making routes have been closed, but, more often than not, these closures have also reflected falling consumer traffic. Nearly 15 years after the phased privatisation of British Rail, the rail system in the United Kingdom has not collapsed, but remains of a very high standard with improved efficiency, a greater focus on consumer demand and needs, and a rapidly improving and growing network.

In view of the rampant corruption, almost no efficiency and standards, and the daily deterioration of the railway network in Pakistan, we must follow suit, and the government must begin the phased privatisation of Pakistan Railways — this is the only way to keep the railway relevant in Pakistan. Already, a lot freight and passenger traffic has transferred to the more efficient and modern road network and this process will continue unless the railway becomes responsive to market forces and upgrades itself — something which can only happen if it privatises. The railway, in what is Pakistan now, began mainly as a private initiative and expanded rapidly to become the lifeline of domestic travel — its rebirth now also requires the return of private enterprise.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2011.