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February 3rd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Built in the middle of the Nineteenth Century by engineers who risked rabid
wolves, crocodiles and malaria, the railway from Lahore was once a
cornerstone of Britain’s vast Indian empire, ferrying troops to the interior
and carrying textiles and tea to the vast port of Karachi.
Pakistan inherited a rail network stretching more than 5000 miles at
independence in 1947.
But years of corruption and mismanagement has seen the state-owned business
taken to the brink of collapse.
Executives say its fleet of 146 locomotives is 500 short of what it needs.
The resulting delays and cancellations have seen a once popular railway
marginalised; used by only those that cannot afford travelling by air or
road.
This year, the business is expected to lose more than £200m.
Arif Azim, chairman of Pakistan Railways, said he wanted to turn back the
clock to a time when the railways were both reliable and elegant.
“Our aim right now is to offer a service in the best traditions of the
line – whether it was in the British time or after independence,”
he said.
Construction on the line began in 1858 when Sir Henry Edward Frere, the
commissioner of Sind, realised Karachi would form an ideal port.
The first stretch opened in 1861, running 100 miles inland before connecting
with steamers on the Indus.
John Brunton, the chief engineer, described in his memoir the challenges of
buying off hostile princes and the day a rabid wolf ran through his camp
outside Karachi.
“In India a record is kept of all fatalities arising from attacks of wild
beasts, snakes etc – and on this occasion the return gave 12 men bitten, of
whom 10 died, and a large number of cattle,” he wrote.
“The brute was hunted down and killed by the natives, the day after our
interview with him.”
Pakistan has different troubles today.
A bomb blast closed the railway last year not far from the spot where those
rabid wolves once roamed and the Business Express carries armed guards.
It may not be quite the Orient Express, but the daily sleeper with running
water, a dinner service, and pillows for the bunks are a vast improvement on
the squalid, broken-down carriages that usually make the stop-start journey.
The service is provided by a private company in a deal that gives it 14% of
the £35 single ticket price.
Javed Salim Qureshi, chairman of Four Brothers, the private partner: “Pakistan
has had a disaster on the railways. This is a new departure.
“I just hope it gets there on time.”
A trial run a week earlier fell eight hours behind schedule even before
leaving Lahore after a carriage derailed.
Some of the two hundred or so passengers aboard the maiden trip said they were
impressed by the facilities but would reserve judgment until their arrival
in Karachi.
Khurram Ali, a financial analyst, said he was surprised by the first-world
standards.
“It’s cheaper than flying and this new service seems really good,”
he said, as the lush farmland of Punjab flashed past the window at 70mph.
“But then again we all know how bad the delays have been so ask me again
what I think tomorrow morning.”
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