By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Dec 24 2007 (IPS)

While authorities have attributed the Dec. 19 railway tragedy to a possible rail fracture from cold weather, experts say the issue is not about nuts and bolts but a reflection of overall transport policy.

At least 40 passengers died and 250 others were injured when the Lahore-bound Karachi Express derailed at Mehrabpur, 400 km from Karachi. An enquiry is underway and a preliminary report expected by the end of this week, but officials say most likely welded track joints came apart due to cold weather.

"There&#39s a joint in the track which is welded and that has broken. It shrinks in winter. There are many forces on the track and sometimes this joint breaks," Asad Saeed, general manager of the state-run Pakistan Railways (PR), told newspersons immediately after the accident.

Other officials pointed at the possibility of sabotage and missing rail sections. "That is a possibility… sabotage cannot be ruled out," said Junaid Qureshi, director of operations for PR, told IPS. ‘’Accidents happen all over the world.’’

But with a triple-train collision resulting in 170 deaths in 2005 at Ghotki, and the world’s ‘worst railway disaster’ at Sangi in December 1989, killing 400 people, still fresh in public memory, experts are calling for a fresh appraisal to see where PR is headed.

In 2006 alone there were 125 train accidents, of which derailments were the most common. These mishaps, attributable to human failures and mechanical failures, have triggered a public outcry over a once clean, comfortable and safe mode of transport. The glory days of the PR came to an end by the 70s when the railways were allocated around 70 percent of funds for the transportation sector.

Successive governments have since been giving priority to road development and by the year 2000 the allocation for railways dropped to a mere five percent, said a railways official who did not want to be named. "Because there was much talk of privatising this state-run asset, governments saw no reason to pump money into it," he added.

With one enquiry report after another piling up and gathering dust and with passenger toll rising, there seems little ambiguity as to what is responsible – weak signalling systems, tracks in disrepair and lack of funds to maintain and modernise.

"The railways are exactly where they were when the British left it (in 1947) with some of the tracks over a 100 years old and an antiquated signalling system," Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a former railway minister, told IPS.

Ahmed refuses to buy the story of tracks getting cracked in cold weather. "These are just excuses. How do rails ply on tracks in countries where temperatures fall to minus? Why don’t they develop cracks?" According to Rashid there is just not enough money, with the result that the service has fallen into a decrepit condition.

Qureshi, however, insists that in the last eight years, much has been done towards passenger comfort. "Why else would there be an increase of over two million passengers in the last six months?’’ Over 1.4 billion people used the railways last year.

"We may not have state-of-the art railways, but we’re getting there,’’ Qureshi said. He conceded that the PR does not have computerised track circuiting which can detect track faults and warn train crew. "Its installation and maintenance is very expensive."

In the absence of such a circuiting, the PR has improvised and developed a foot patrolling system with railway staff looking out for faulty tracks. In the last two years, the PR has imported and replaced 1,000 of the 6,000 goods wagons, while 1,300 more are in the process of being bought from China. The rest will be produced locally over the next two years.

As for a new signalling system, Qureshi is optimistic that in the next three years this would cover the entire country, and that in five years there will be a complete reform of the railways. "We have many projects which are underway, including laying of double tracks that will increase the speed from 105 km per hour to 140-160 kmph, thereby resolving the issue of trains running late and other operational problems. Plans are underway to spread the rail network to Gwadar port in Balochistan, and to eventually link it to western China for improved and swift cargo movement."

Qureshi concedes that 45 percent of the locomotives are old. "Now even with funds being there, it will take time to buy new ones. Orders have to be placed three and four years in advance before we can get hold of the machines."

Commented eminent economist Kaiser Bengali: "Wherever accidents occur officials take responsibility and resign. Yes, railway accidents do happen all over the world, but can the ministry of railways honestly provide a profile of rail accidents worldwide over the last 10 years to show the comparative frequencies of accidents?"

Bengali asserted to IPS that rail accidents were happening too often in Pakistan. "If it is claimed that the railways are now well maintained and upgraded, then it must only be in the books. The Mehrabpur accident proves that such upgradation or maintenance has not taken place on the ground or on the tracks."

According to Bengali him money may have been invested in the department and continuous improvement may be taking place, &#39&#39but it is not keeping pace with the requirements&#39&#39.

Against calls for privatisation so that funds for modernisation would become quickly available, Qureshi said private companies would refuse to ply on unprofitable routes and were likely to raise fares. ‘’It is better that the railways stays with the government,’’ he said.

Excerpt: