KARACHI: Khyber Mail, a passenger train that operates between Peshawar and Karachi, on Wednesday narrowly escaped a tragedy after it derailed near Guddu station, days after a collision between two express services killed 65 people.
A bogie derailed near Guddu station at Indus River. The train was running at a slow speed, allowing the driver time to stop it. No injuries were reported.
Train accidents are not infrequent, and successive governments have paid little attention to improving the poorly maintained signal system and ageing tracks.
Data from Pakistan Railways shows there were 757 train accidents between 2012 and 2017 — a staggering average of about 125 incidents a year.
Between 2013 and 2019, 150 people died in train incidents, according to media reports. Casualty figures are often high because trains are packed with far greater numbers of passengers than they were designed for.
