By Muhammad Mudassar ISLAMABAD, Feb. 17 (INP-WealthPK): The Pakistan Railways is coming up with innovation to streamline its operations to help increase the number of passengers by providing them ease of travel, and to turn it into a profit-earning entity. Putting the railways on a fast track is an initiative being realised through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. For enhancing efficiency and effectiveness using an artificial-intelligence-based approach, the Pakistan Railways recently signed an agreement with Easyway and China North Industries Group Corporation (NORINCO) to implement Railway Automated Booking and Travel Assistant (RABTA). The Pakistan Railways will greatly benefit from the experience of NORINCO as it has already completed the Orange Train project in Lahore, Punjab. The RABTA platform offers to locate, book, and pay for all modes of transport. The ticket can be booked from different platforms, including ticket agents, mobile applications, websites, reservation officers, e-banking, and vending machine. It also gives facility for refreshment and meal, among others. Moreover, RABTA has a centralised complaint, revenue and accounting system, freight and parcel booking, and data centre. The initiative will make Pakistan Railways more convenient for travel and will help increase passenger trafficking. The Chinese firm will add value to the railways under the RABTA initiative. Through is initiative, Pakistan Railways can overcome the challenges of poor maintenance of tracks and bridges and mismanagement. The projects of Main Line-1 and RABTA are the steps that will turn Pakistan Railways into a convenient mode of travel. The railways are the most affordable and safe public transit system in the world. Globally, 8% of passengers travel through the railways and about 9% of freight is done through this mode of transportation, as per the France-based International Energy Agency (IEA) that works with governments and industry to shape a secure and sustainable energy future for all. Pakistan railways have about 466 locomotives, of which 461 have diesel-run and five steam, for a total of 7,791 kilometers track, according to Pakistan Economic Survey 2020-21. Total earnings from railways were over Rs54 billion in the fiscal year 2018-19, 10% more than the previous fiscal year 2017-18. In FY 2019-20, the revenue was decreased by 12 .7% due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic (ministry of railways), as it had to partially suspend its services. The number of passengers decreased significantly during the pandemic, which, however, did not affect the freight service. In the fiscal year 2020-21, a total of 18.11 million passengers availed the railway’s facility, 54% less than the previous FY 2019-20. The following figure shows the number of passengers and freight traffic during the years mentioned above.

Source: Ministry of Railways

China has a well-developed railway infrastructure with the world's largest high-speed lines with a maximum of 350 kilometers per hour speed. According to Sun Yangjun, Director General, China Railway Group Limited, the passenger volume at the railways in China is 2.2 billion with a freight volume of 3.58 billion tons per year. China not only focuses on improving the services for passengers or freight, but also underscores research and development to improve GDP and generate employment. China makes the state-of-the-art infrastructure through long-term and short-term plans that focus on the function of the railway lines, railway network, and economic development strategy.