Trying to fix the tracks near Lahore. Pakistan’s railways, which once linked a fractious young nation, have been neglected. Andrea Bruce for The New York Times
Pakistan, Rusting in Its Tracks -- New York Times
In a Journey on a Crumbling Railway, a Picture of a Nation’s Troubles
RUK, Pakistan — Resplendent in his gleaming white uniform and peaked cap, jacket buttons tugging his plump girth, the stationmaster stood at the platform, waiting for a train that would never come. “Cutbacks,” Nisar Ahmed Abro said with a resigned shrug.
Ruk Station, in the center of Pakistan, is a dollhouse-pretty building, ringed by palm trees and rice paddies. Once, it stood at the junction of two great Pakistani rail lines: the Kandahar State Railway, which raced north through the desert to the Afghan border; and another that swept east to west, chaining cities from the Hindu Kush mountains to the Arabian Sea.
Now it was a ghost station. No train had stopped at Ruk in six months, because of cost cutting at the state-owned rail service, Pakistan Railways, and the elegant station stood lonely and deserted. Idle railway men smoked in the shadows. A water buffalo sauntered past.
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My Comment: A must read analysis from the New York Times. An excellent graphic on Pakistan's woes can be seen here.
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