Rail transport in Pakistan began in 1855 during theBritish Raj, when several railway companies began laying track and operating in present-dayPakistan. The country's rail system has beennationalised asPakistan Railways (originally thePakistan Western Railway). The system was originally a patchwork of local rail lines operated by small private companies, including theScinde,Punjab andDelhi Railways and theIndus Steam Flotilla. In 1870, the four companies were amalgamated as theScinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway. Several other rail lines were built shortly thereafter, including theSind–Sagar andTrans–Baluchistan Railways and theSind–Pishin,Indus Valley,Punjab Northern andKandahar State Railways. These six companies and the Scinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway merged to form theNorth Western State Railway in 1886.[1] It was later renamed as North-Western Railway in 1905,[1] and few decades following theindependence of Pakistan in 1947, the North Western Railway which mostly became part of Pakistani territory was renamed Pakistan Western Railway in 1961.[2] It was later renamed as Pakistan Railways in 1974.[3]
The Scinde Railway Company was established in 1855, afterKarachi's potential as a seaport was first explored in the early 1850s.Henry Bartle Frere, who was appointedCommissioner of Sindh shortly after its fall in theBattle of Miani, sought permission fromLord Dalhousie to begin a survey for a seaport. The Scinde Railway was established by asettlement in March 1855, and was incorporated by Parliament in the Scinde Railway Act of July of that year.[4][5] Frere began the rail survey in 1858, and a rail line from Karachi toKotri; steam navigation up theIndus andChenab Rivers toMultan, and another rail line toLahore were proposed. Work on the railway began in April 1858, and Karachi and Kotri—a distance of 108 miles (174 km)—were connected by rail on 13 May 1861.[6]
The Punjab Railway was established shortly after the July 1855 passage of the Scinde Railway Act.[4][5][7] As the Karachi-to-Kotri line was being constructed and theIndus Steam Flotilla was being set up to transport passengers toMultan, the Punjab Railway was laid fromMultan toLahore and onward toAmritsar.[8] The line opened in 1861, connecting Karachi and Lahore.
The Indus Steam Flotilla was a freight and passengersteamship company which operated initially between Karachi and Multan and later betweenKotri and Multan after the completion of theKarachi-Kotri Railway Line between 1858 and 1870.[9] The Indus Steam Flotilla provided "the navigation of the Indus, &c, by means of steam vessels [sic], between Kotri and Multan, to be worked in connection with the railways."[citation needed] It plied the Indus and Chenab Rivers fromKarachi Port in the south toMakhad in the north viaJhirk andMithankot. The journey between Karachi and Multan alone took up to 40 days. The company had its headquarters in Kotri, and its promoters negotiated the same guaranteed rate of return as the original guaranteed railways. It later merged with the Scinde and Punjab Railways to form theScinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway. With the Scinde Railway in place, the Indus Flotilla steamers could take cargo from Kotri instead of Karachi (saving about 150 miles (240 km) through the Indus River delta). The railway bypassed Jhirk (Jherruk), reducing its importance. In 1856, the Scinde Railway charter was expanded to include the construction of Punjab Railway connecting Multan
The Scinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway was formed in 1870 from the incorporation of the Indus Steam Flotilla and the Scinde, Punjab and Delhi Railways by the Scinde Railway Company's Amalgamation Act of 1869.Deepak[4] The company inherited a reputation as the worst-managed of the early private companies. After its purchase in 1885, the SP&DR was merged with several other railways to form theNorth Western State Railway (NWR).
TheIndus Valley State Railway was undertaken by Scinde Railway chief resident engineer John Brunton, assisted by his sonWilliam Arthur Brunton, in 1869–70. TheEmpress Bridge, opened in 1878, carried the IVSR over theSutlej River betweenFerozepur (Firozpur, south of Lahore) andKasur. The line reachedSukkur in 1879, and the steam ferry which transported eight wagons at a time across the Indus betweenRohri and Sukkur was found to be cumbersome and time-consuming. The opening of theLansdowne Bridge in 1889 resolved the bottleneck, and Karachi Port was connected to the rail network. With other companies, the Indus Valley State Railway was merged with theScinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway in 1886 to form theNorth Western State Railway.
ThePunjab Northern State Railway, opened in 1876, was a line between Lahore andPeshawar. The route of what became the railway was first surveyed in 1857, followed by years of political and military debate. The Punjab Northern State Railway was created in 1870–71 to construct and operate a railway between Lahore and Peshawar. The first section of line (from Lahore to Peshawar) was opened in 1876, and in 1883[10] theAttock Bridge over the Indus River was completed.Francis Joseph Edward Spring was deployed from the Imperial Civil Service's engineering section in 1873 as consulting engineer for the PNSR survey and the construction of portions of the railway and bridges, and remained attached to the railway until 1878. Several major bridges were constructed to complete the PNSR line from Lahore to Peshawar.
Government consideredRussia, who might advance from Afghanistan into Quetta, a threat to its rule inthe subcontinent.[11] In 1857, Scinde, Punjab and Delhi Railway chairman William Andrew suggested that rail lines to theBolan Pass would have a strategic role in responding to a Russian threat. During theSecond Anglo-Afghan War (1878–80), a new urgency was felt to construct a rail line to Quetta for easier access to the frontier. Work began on the line on 18 September 1879, and the first 215 kilometres (134 mi) from Ruk toSibi was completed in January 1880. Beyond Sibi, however, the terrain was difficult. After harsh weather, the over-320-kilometre (200 mi) line finally reached Quetta in March 1887.[11]
TheTrans-Balochistan Railway ran fromQuetta toTaftan and onward to the Iranian city ofZahidan. It was named the Nushki Extension Railway, since its construction began west of Nushki in 1916. The line reached Zahidan in 1922. It is 732 kilometres (455 mi) long, with the last 100-kilometer section in Iran. It is little used, with onefortnightly train between Quetta and Zahidan.[12]
TheKandahar State Railway opened in 1881 and originally ran fromSibi and onward to Rindli, with the intention of reachingQuetta andKandahar.[13] However, the line never reachedQuetta.[14] The railway joined with the southern section of theSind–Pishin State Railway and, in 1886, amalgamated with other railways to form theNorth Western State Railway (NWR). From Sibi the line ran south-west, skirting the hills to Rindli, and originally followed theBolan stream to its head on the plateau. Flooding led to the abandonment of this alignment, and the railway follows the Mashkaf Valley.[citation needed] Although the Bolan Pass rail construction enabled the NWR route to be selected, the line was later dismantled.[citation needed]
The Sind–Sagar Railway was originally constructed as a Metre Gauge railway line from Lala Musa to Malakwal. In 1886 the Sind–Sagar Railway was amalgamated with other railways to form the North Western State Railway and railway line from was converted to broad gauge. The Chak Nizam Bridge, also known as Victoria Bridge, was completed in early 1887 over the Jhelum river in Shahpur District and connected Jhelum to Lahore. The NWR Sind-Sagar Branch Line was the new name for the line and continued to be extended with branch lines and designated as part of the 'Frontier Section – Military Line'.
TheNorth Western State Railway (reporting markNWR) was formed in January 1886 from the merger of theScinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway, theIndus Valley State Railway, thePunjab Northern State Railway, the eastern section of theSind–Sagar Railway, the southern section of theSind–Pishin State Railway and theKandahar State Railway.[15][16] The NWR also absorbed several smaller railways, including theQuetta Link Railway (a strategic line constructed by the Scinde, Punjaub & Delhi Railway in 1887),Jammu–Sialkot Railway (opened in 1897),Kasur–Lodhran Railway (opened 1909–10 and later dismantled),Shorekot Road–Chichoki Railway (opened 1910),Sialkot–Narowal Railway (opened 1915),Shahdara Bagh–Narowal Railway (opened 1926) and theTrans–Indus Railway (opened 1913). The military and strategic concerns for securing the border with Afghanistan were such that Francis Langford O'Callaghan, who was posted from the state railways as engineer-in-chief, was called on for a number of demanding railway projects, surveys and constructions in theNorthwest Frontier.[17] What began as military and strategic railway projects became part of the North Western State Railway network at its formation in 1886. The Bolan Pass railway was completed in 1886, and the 1887 Khawaja Amran Railway Survey included theKhojak Tunnel and the Chaman Extension Railway.[18] TheKhojak Tunnel opened in 1891 and the railway reachedChaman, near the Afghan border.
The North Western State Railway was renamed as North Western Railway in 1905.[16] By 1905, it was the longest railway under one administration and the strategic railway of the Northwest Frontier. Following thepartition of British India andindependence of Pakistan in 1947, most of the North Western Railway infrastructure became part of the Pakistani territory; the Indian portion was incorporated into theEastern Punjab Railway.[19]
On 1 February 1961, the North-Western Railway was renamed thePakistan Western Railway.[20] InEast Bengal, the portion of theAssam Bengal Railway in Pakistani territory was renamed thePakistan Eastern Railway.[20][21]
The railway was extended toMardan andCharsada in 1954, and two years later theJacobabad–Kashmore2 ft 6 in (762 mm) line wasconverted to5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm)broad gauge. In 1961, the Pakistani portion of the North Western Railway was renamedPakistan Railways. TheKot Adu–Kashmore line, constructed between 1969 and 1973, provided an alternative route north from Karachi.[citation needed]
In 1974, Pakistan Western Railways was renamedPakistan Railways.[3]
On that day the Indian portion of tile North-Western was constituted into Eastern Punjab Railway, and the parts of the Bengal–Assam in the province of Assam were formed into Assam Railway.
