Fares of passenger, freight trains go up by five percent

LAHORE: Pakistan Railways has increased the fares of passenger trains and freight trains by five percent, said a notification issued here Friday.

The increase in fares will be effective from September 2 (Saturday).

Earlier, the caretaker government notified an increase in the price of petrol by Rs 14.9 per litre.

According to details, the rate of petrol has reached Rs305.36 per litre with increase of Rs 14.9 per litre.

According to Pakistan Railways spokesman, the hike in prices of petroleum products have started to take its toll on Pakistan Railways. He said that any further increase in diesel price will put an additional burden of billions of rupees on the railways.

“About 350,000 liters of diesel is used daily on the system of Pakistan Railways”, the railway official said, adding, “The increase of Rs 18.5 per liter is putting an additional burden of Rs 6.5 million on the railways on a daily basis”.

This will cause an additional burden of Rs 195 million in one month, he said.

Meanwhile , local transporters also unilaterally increased the fares of busses and coaches by Rs20 to Rs30 stop-to-stop despite the fact that the district administration has not notified any increase in this regard