Railways is still the cheapest means of transporting goods and an efficient railway system can add to the economic benefits of society
Pakistan Railways has been ailing for a long time. Despite all the claims made by Pervez Musharraf, Sheikh Rashid, and now Saad Rafique, the core problem of the Railways remains unresolved. As long as it is not tackled head on, it will not go beyond the cosmetic changes that are introduced and splashed over the media for the sake of propaganda.
Not enough investment has been made in the organisation in the past decades with the result that its infrastructure and equipment have all become obsolete. If someone talks of really putting the railways back on track, the capital expenditure is so huge that the ministries of finance, economic affairs and planning are not willing to hold the hand of the ministry of railways for long.
Of all the national building departments, railways and irrigation got the top honours during the colonial period. It was one railway system all over the subcontinent that was established for facilitating political cohesiveness allied to economic activity.
Defence, too, was high on the agenda and most of the tracks in Pakistan were laid for the purposes of defence. Once that was rendered obsolete with changing requirements, these lines went into disuse and many of them were dismantled along the Afghan border.
Over the decades, the department has been used as a dumping ground or parking lot for employment. It becomes worse when a political government is in power for it has to appease its electorate by offering jobs. The department, if in expansion, justifies the induction of more staff but if the passenger traffic is falling and freight revenue is declining there is no justification for the induction of more staff. Overemployment in the department has always been a bane and now, with so many retiring after putting in their tenure, the department is going down under with not only salary disbursements but the pension bill as well.
From the early days when the dice was cast in favour of roads by the Harvard Economists, Railways has been the less favoured of the siblings within the family of transport. Its aging equipment was not replaced and upgraded and its options for lifting goods was not given the priority that it should have with the result that the road transport that usually operated in the private sector gained huge benefits at the expense of the Railways.
Being a government department, it was never allowed to determine its own rates for passengers and freight traffic. Instead, it was controlled by the government that usually opted for populous measures of keeping the rates well below the cost incurred.
It was labelled as a poor man’s transport and, hence, was made affordable to the common man who even in this day and age can travel for more than a thousand kilometres from Lahore to Karachi for a sum of a few hundred rupees.
This focus on it being a poor man’s transport did not add value to the network and it was thought good enough to operate at the bare minimum. With technology leaping ahead, even staying at one place was actually being pushed backwards. The system being archaic started to stare in the face of those running the department and those using it. The entire effort has been to keep an outdated operating equipment and system functioning. This has only meant greater maintenance cost.
The real earner for the railways has been the freight traffic. During colonial times, and even later, it had a monopoly position, especially over long haulage and the traders and clients pleaded with the authorities for lifting their goods and its quick haulage.
This also meant that the officials had to be pleased. The bureaucratic attitude of waiting in the office for the petitioners to come begging for a service or a concession was in direct contrast to the commercial and business practices of seeking out clients and creating business opportunities.
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The government department was not at all prepared to seek traffic and give concessions on the spot. The creeping inefficiency and corruption drove the businessmen away who now had the choice to opt for road. It was not cheap but quicker, more flexible in terms of rates and had the advantage of door-to-door service.
Railways were not able to match this because its mindset was outdated and, gradually, its equipment had also rusted. The government controls took away all the powers of taking initiatives.
With no electricity, the electric trains were discontinued and the cost of importing oil added to the overall bill. Due to trade barriers with India and lack of proper commercial and passenger openings the passenger and goods’ traffic with India has been kind of "work to rule".
The locomotives and rolling stock cannot be imported from India where they are manufactured locally and Railways had no money to import locomotives from the reputable companies. Similarly, most of the steel and other equipment had to be imported which further imbalanced the payments.
Instead, the private sector was allowed to import trucks and buses to operate on roads built by the state. It did not add to the imbalances of the government books; all this while the advantage was being unfairly shifted in favour of roads.
Railway is still the cheapest means of transporting goods and an efficient railway system can add to the economic benefits of society. If the purpose of cheap freight traffic rates was to facilitate transportation and accelerate economic activity, it has only left the department bankrupt with the possible economic advantages going elsewhere.
Then being very eco-friendly in the age of the growing problems of climate variations, railways should be the preferred option on this count as well. But the real merit or the cause lies in railways linking itself to the lines which already exist with Iran and, hence, to Europe and Central Asia and to India. By providing a transit, railways can benefit a lot and add to the economic activity in the region.
With the Chinese showing great interest in the railroad as a means of linking up regional routes, railways has a good chance to redeem itself. If it does, we will have to be thankful to a foreign power to have made this possible. From the one which set it up to the one which may revive it, we have to be in gratitude to the outsiders all the time.