Lahore. Generally, there is a perception that passengers get high level and special facilities in luxury trains, but the experience of Indian YouTuber Dr. Navankur Chaudhary in a so-called luxury train of Pakistan was completely opposite to this. The bitter reality that Dr Chaudhary faced during his train journey from Multan to Lahore has come out openly through his latest YouTube vlog.
Technical difficulties in online booking
Dr. Chaudhary has shared the memories of this entire journey on his YouTube channel. While digital ticketing has become very easy and simple in India, in Pakistan they had to spend a lot of money to get the ticket. Despite fares and vacant seats being displayed on the booking apps, the payment gateway was failing repeatedly, making online payments not possible. Ultimately he had to go to the reservation counter of Multan Cantt Railway Station and buy the ticket offline. Navankur was out with his friends to enjoy Pakistan Railways’ famous ‘Green Line’, which is considered one of the modern train services there and is often compared to India’s premium ‘Rajdhani Express’. 2,950 Pakistani rupees (approximately Rs 1010 in Indian currency) were paid per person for this journey.
External shine and internal misery
This train looked very attractive and modern from outside, but as soon as we entered inside it, the ground reality started telling something different. However, the journey itself began with delays; This train coming from Karachi was delayed by one and a half hour (90 minutes) at Khanwal station, the exact information of which was available on the live tracking app. On inspecting the inside of the train, some things were seen which surprised the YouTuber. An LCD screen was installed in front of each seat, with a Chinese language option. Its seats were fully rotatable, somewhat reminiscent of Japanese trains. This ticket fare also included lunch, which mainly consisted of biryani, chicken, naan and sweets, although passengers wanting vegetarian food had limited options and had to settle for dal.
Slow pace and lack of infrastructure
Despite its modern appearance, the train’s slow speed and frequent delays left the Indian YouTuber sorely disappointed. Navankur said that the average speed of the train was much lower than expected. To restore water supply in the train, it was stopped between Multan and Khanewal for about forty minutes. Moreover, due to lack of infrastructure like single-track sections, the train made frequent stoppages at various stations, making the normal journey of just two and a half hours very long, tiring and inconvenient. Overall, this so-called luxury train journey to Pakistan proved to be a very disappointing and lesson-laden experience for Dr. Navankur Chaudhary.
