Pak Railways may take over ailing private service

The management of Pakistan Railways is definitely in a position to run Business Express trains if the private management fails to continue the service, initiated almost a year ago on a public-private partnership basis, says a report from Lahore.

''PR (Pakistan Railways) cannot afford closure of the service financially or economically,'' The Express Tribune said quoting an unnamed senior official.

The private operator of Business Express, which runs between Lahore and Karachi equipped with modern facilities, owes Rs320 million to PR in unpaid bills.

''Though PR authorities are under pressure to offer some concession, nobody can write off the outstanding amount as this will take him behind bars,'' the official said.

Almost paradoxically, the cash-strapped PR saw public-private partnerships accounting for 26 per cent of total passenger revenues, despite accounting for less than 1 per cent of passenger traffic, during the first six months of financial year 2013.

Revenues for the Railways were up by 19.9 per cent to Rs7.7 billion during the period between 1 July and 20 December 2012, compared to the same period in the previous year. Nearly 89 per cent of that increase came from rising passenger revenues, and nearly all of that increase came from the two public-private partnerships, where companies have leased out routes from Pakistan Railways. Passenger services account for nearly three-quarters of all railways revenue.