Train for Karachi

This refers to the news report ‘Orange Train rolls out for test run (December 11). With the test run made successfully, I am sure other procedures would be completed without unnecessary delay and the train service opened for public use soon. Approximately 2.5 lakh passengers are expected to travel on the city’s first-ever metro train which, in another first, would be run on electricity, and thus help reduce pollution in the city.

So, Lahore, which never had a metro train, now has one. Compare this with the misfortune of Karachi which had a circular railways service decades back which ran over 100 trains in peak hours. However, it was closed down ostensibly for making a small loss which was more due to the deliberate running down of the service rather than its unviability. Every few years, we hear of grand plans to restart the KCR but nothing happens. We will believe it only when we see it.

S R H Hashmi

Karachi