Friends of the Rail Forum

Rail freight back on the move in Pakistan

Tue, 24 Jan 2012
ifw

Shortage of locomotives resulted in services hitting the buffers last July


Pakistan Railways has restarted rail freight services from the port of Karachi, after a six-month gap due to a lack of locomotives.

A spokesman said daily services would be used to clear a backlog of of coal, phosphate and railways material at the port, while container services would restart within 10 days.

Around 15 locomotives had been operating freight trains last year but services were suspended in July, due to an “acute shortage of locomotives”.

The rail authorities said they hoped to restore the suspended passenger and freight trains as soon as the locomotives could be repaired.

The spokesman said: “Presently we are loading one train daily from Karachi port and during coming days we will extend to four or five freight trains daily.”

He said the Finance Ministry had arranged funds “for rehabilitation and repairs for locomotives which was under process”.

Before the collapse of operations, rail freight services were contributing more than 30% of pakistan Railways’ revenues.

Pakistan Railways has a fleet of 16,500 freight wagons.