Sir henry edward frere, the commissioner of sindh requested lord dalhousie to begin a survey for a karachi seaport and a survey for a railway line in 1858.On may 13th 1861 the first railway line was opened to the public between karachi and kotri with a distance of 169 km. By 1898 the ntwork began to grow from peshawar to karachi.During the early 20th century railway lines were also laid down between peshawar and rawalpindi and rawalpindi to lahore.Different sections are on the existing main line from peshawar and branch lines were constructed in the last quarter of 19th century and early 20th century.
In 1947, At the time of independence there were 5,048 route miles 8,122 km in pakistan.
In 1954 the railway line was extented to mardan and charsada and in 1956 the jaxobabad kashmore 2 ft 6 in 762 mm gauge line was converted into board gaguge.In 1961 the pakistani portion of north western railway was renamed pakistan railways.The kot adu kashmor line was constructed between 1969 providing an alternative route from karachi to northern pakistan.At present the railway network comprises 8,163 km of which 5vft 6 in broad gauge froms 7,718 km including 293 km of electrified track 1 meter narrow gauge tracks from the remaining 445 km.
At present the organization is brankrupt and has all freight and many passenger services in a cost cutting measure.As of mid 2011,it was decided to stop all goods train haulage due to servere shortage of locomotives and fuel.The fianancially bankrupt organization , despite bailouts has not been able to energe out its troubles to cancellation of as many as 115 railway services...
Passenger traffic comprises 50% of the total revenue annually.During 2009-2010 this amounted to Rs. 4.8 billion.Pakistan railway carries 65 million passengers annually and opreates 228 mail,express and passenger trains daily.PR carriesan average of 178,000 people daily.Pakistan railways also opreates special trains during occasions such as Eid ul Fitr, Eid ul Azha, Independence day and Raiwind ijtema.
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