
A journey along the abandoned Karachi Circular Railway - tintinnabula
https://placesjournal.org/article/these-studies-led-to-further-studies/
======
amingilani
The first few paragraphs convey exactly how I've personally experienced
Karachi as someone from Lahore. It's a wonderfully clean, or incredibly
polluted, well managed or a completely broken down city, with beautifully
complex and horridly broken bridges which is fairly safe, or so unsafe that I
should avoid wearing a business suit or carrying a moderately expensive phone.

The people I've interacted with are usually either very educated, or not at
all, and either health conscious or addicted to chewing tobacco (or whatever
the "gutka" really is). Incidentally, I've heard that the gutka is a just
chewing tobacco, or a mix of cigarette tobacco, battery acid, and animal
blood.. all when I asked someone in Karachi.

But hey, atleast everyone in Karachi agrees that their food is better than
Lahore's. However, much like everyone in Lahore, I believe they're mistaken.

~~~
oh_sigh
Are you saying that going from block to block an individual experiences vastly
different worlds, or are you saying that Lahore is in the eyes of the beholder
and some may see it as an amazing city and others would view it as a shithole?

~~~
amingilani
The former, although I'm talking about Karachi, and not Lahore.

------
pm90
> At its peak in the mid-1970s, the Karachi Circular Railway served 6 million
> passengers annually, but by the end of its first decade, the system was
> already in decline. 52 High maintenance costs and unstable funding prevented
> investments in the infrastructure necessary to keep up with population
> growth. There was no grade separation at many street intersections, and
> traffic congestion slowed the train as the city grew, which in turn led to
> lower ridership and a downward spiral in revenue. These pressures continued
> through the 1980s and 1990s, as the railway also faced a rash of transit
> crime, ticketless riders, and competition with new transport options. By
> 1998 the KCR was making only twelve trips a day, and traveling no faster
> than a walking pace in some sections. The next year it was shut down.

6 million annually to 0! Wow that is really sad :(.

I grew up in Mumbai, which is considered a sister-city to Karachi. I remember
the suburban rail (which is a lifeline of the city used by millions to commute
everyday) being neglected and frequently late. But when I was in high school,
something changed: the trains were cleaner, started to be on time consistently
and so on. Then they upgraded from the ancient rail stock to more modern cars
today. And the system continue to hum along.

I wonder what caused one of the systems' precipitous decline while the other
one continues to run.

~~~
wordpressdev
I was to Mumbai few years back, traveled a lot in trains both local and to
other cities. I must say I was really impressed with the service and
management. I was told that trains are the lifeline in Mumbai and people come
out to protest if trains get delayed or are closed for maintenance.

We used to have similar system here in Karachi but greed and corruption took
it away from us.

------
avs733
The first eight paragraphs of that are probably the most interesting and
illustrative way of describing a problem without directly stating it I have
ever read. It is incredibly effective.

~~~
205guy
Came to say the same thing: this article was a refreshing piece of journalism
that uses language and writing techniques in a creative and effective way.

I especially like that the effect was confirmed by other comments as being
very indicative of the topic itself. In other words, you could write about
anything like this, but it actually resembles how people experience or think
about this particular topic.

------
yosito
I met a journalist from Karachi once. Did some traveling together. They were
telling me how the population of Karachi is widely disputed, how people throw
different numbers around all the time and the real number is hard to
determine. Judging by this article, that's a common problem for a lot of
information in Karachi. I'd guess that's due to political instability in the
region preventing accurate information gathering and distribution. I find that
to be the more interesting part of this story.

~~~
wordpressdev
In the recent population census, happened after 19 years, it is alleged that
population of Karachi was not counted properly. [0][1][2]

0: [https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/228657-Karachis-census-
resu...](https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/228657-Karachis-census-results-are-
all-terribly-wrong)

1: [https://www.dawn.com/news/1356681](https://www.dawn.com/news/1356681)

2: [https://www.dawn.com/news/1358516](https://www.dawn.com/news/1358516)

------
wordpressdev
I live in Karachi and I have seen how the Circular Railway was dragged to a
rusty death. The land grabbers, the transport mafia and corrupt officials all
played their part in the tragic demise of Karachi Circular Railway.

~~~
JBReefer
Isn't that the story of Karachi in general?

~~~
baybal2
MQM, and Mafia bros on every corner. Feels like Moscow mid 200x

