By SAMIULLAH RANDHAWA
LAHORE: Though the Pakistan Railways (PR) has implemented decreased fares in passenger trains from today at specific routes this will facilitate only handful passengers contrary to the claims by PR, Pakistan Today has observed on Tuesday.
On October 24, PR announced a reduction in fares of up to 49 per cent, giving an impression that a large number of passengers nationwide would benefit from the reductions.
However, fares from only Attock, Nowshera and Peshawar to Lahore have decreased from 30 – 49 per cent.
Similarly, fares from Lahore to Rawalpindi for the AC class of Jaffer, Awam, Khyber Mail and rails cars have been reduced from 7 – 26 per cent. Most passengers in these sections prefer to travel economy class whereas PR has only reduced economy fares by 4 – 9 per cent, giving the passengers a false hope.
Moreover, these fares are only rationalised and not reduced permanently. Furthermore, there have been no cuts for AC class of Jaffer Express from Lahore to Rawalpindi, while only three stations including Gujrat, Lala Musa and Jhelum have seen a decrease in fares by 7 – 21 per cent.
Reliable sources in PR informed Pakistan Today that this was not the first time when PR reduced fare. They said that every winter PR introduced a reduction in fares in mainly AC class as more than 70 per cent passengers prefer not to travel AC due to winters. “These fares are actually rationalised and not reduction which is just an eye-wash,” they added.
