Business Express cuts travel time by an hour

Investment in track maintenance enables the train to travel at higher speeds.


Our Correspondent May 02, 2013
The train will now reach its destination in 17 hours instead of 18 hours previously. PHOTO: FILE

LAHORE: Pak Business Express announced on Thursday that it has managed to curtail travel time from Lahore to Karachi by one hour, after it sped up its service and track maintenance has almost been completed.

The train will now reach its destination in 17 hours instead of 18 hours previously. The service between Karachi and Lahore with only nine coaches has contributed Rs1 billion to the national exchequer in a year through its operations.

Business Express spent a big amount to reduce travel time between Lahore and Karachi.

In a statement issued here, Pak Business Express Director Mian Shafqat Ali said that the nine-coach train is the smallest but the biggest earning arm of Pakistan Railways.

He said that no other train was contributing such amounts as revenue to Pakistan Railways. He also added that the success of the train could be gauged from the fact that now there is great passenger pressure and occasionally tickets are often sold out in advance. One would hope that with this interest in reservations the service will be able to maintain its regular payments to Pakistan Railways.

The success of the Business Express added a new page to public-private partnership (PPP) as the private sector-operated train is earning huge money at this point when the Railways is facing a huge deficit and suspension of trains on a large number of routes.

Ali said that the very objective behind this venture was revival of the Railways and bringing back the lost glories once attached to it.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3rd, 2013.

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COMMENTS (1)

Aleem | 10 years ago | Reply

When a private investor can make billions, why cant the railway authorities do it themselves... only because they are too lethargic, corrupt and the system does not allow them to do anything.

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