Written by: Mustafa-ur-Rehman
Posted on: April 15, 2020 | 
| 中文
Lahore Railway Station
From the distance, one sees a large looming castle opposite to the Old Walled City of Lahore. This is the Lahore Railway Station, located at the intersection of Empress Road, Allama Iqbal Road and Circular Road. The railway station is a stunning example of Anglo-Indian architecture, with red bricks on the outside and high arches on the inside. While the Pakistan Railway has been subject to many controversies, it is important to look back into why exactly the railway systems have been so important for Pakistan, and the overall Indian Subcontinent’s history.
While Lahore serves as the headquarters for the Pakistan Railways today, the history of railways stretches far into the colonial era. The railway system in modern-day Pakistan and India is considered to be amongst the largest and most sophisticated relics of colonial rule. During the War of Independence in 1857, which was among the defining moments of British Raj in India, Punjab decided to provide full support to the British authorities. The Punjab region soon became a significant outpost of the British Empire. After annexation of Punjab in 1849, it began serving as a major recruitment base for the armed forces.
Map of the British Indian Railway Network in 1909
The Lahore Railway Station was designed in 1862 by Mian Sultan Mohammad Chughtai in stunning medieval English architecture, with some Islamic elements. The station itself is purposefully designed like a castle, in order to provide maximum protection, amid fears of further rebellion, following the events of 1857.
A View of the Towers of the Railway Station
In the post-1857 period, as security became a concern for the colonial authorities, significant efforts were made to develop and strengthen communication and transport networks. This meant that Punjab underwent massive infrastructure developments for road, rail and telegraph networks. Military cantonments created sophisticated links to ensure that the British officials stationed in these areas had all their needs and requirements met. By the second half of the nineteenth century, communication links and transport networks, primarily road and rail, were developed between major cities such as Lahore, Multan and Peshawar.
The most notable railway link was the one created between Lahore and Amritsar, a connection which extended all the way to Delhi in 1864. By 1873, railway connections were established between Lahore and Multan as well as Karachi, which served as major commercial hubs of the British Empire. Karachi, with the help of strong railway links to the rest of the Subcontinent, was transformed from a small fishing village into one of the premier port cities of British India.
By the late 1800s, Lahore had established railway workshops for train repair and maintenance. The Scinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway Company, who made Lahore their northern headquarters, became a powerful administrative organization, overseeing mega projects and railway services within the empire. Due to poor management, it was consolidated with other companies to form the North Western Railway, which completely changed the dynamics of railways in British India.
Lahore Station in the 1950s (Photo credit to Vintage Pakistan)
By 1900, over 38,624KM of tracks had been laid across the British Empire in India. Moreover, around 150 million pounds-sterling was invested in Indian railway, becoming the single largest investment in the history of British rule in India. This meant that the railways network was at the heart of both the massive Indian agricultural exports, and British manufactured imports to the Subcontinent. Since the railways sector was structured with a strong focus on manual labor, entire families of the local Indian population were engaged in providing their services to this massive project.
Inside the Railway Station in 1866 (photo credit to The Friday Times)
Even after independence in 1947, both India and Pakistan ensured that the railway system remained functional, providing essential transport and communication links to the citizens of both countries. Lahore, in particular, was one of the stations badly affected by Post-Partition violence, with passengers being attacked and the oft-documented trains of corpses reaching from India to Pakistan and vice versa.
Post 1947, 8124KM of railway tracks remain in Pakistan. The Pakistan Rail System was established by the Quaid-e-Azam and the government of Pakistan, with the help of Karachi-born railway bureaucrat Frank D’Souza, who had opted to migrate to India after Partition. As for the Lahore railway station, trains traveling from the station go to Rawalpindi in the North, Quetta in the West and Karachi in the South. The famous bi-weekly Samjhota Express traveled to Attari, Amristar until it was shut down in August 2019, due to the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
Inside the Railway Station in the Present (Photo credit to Abid Nawaz)
Despite its difficult and long history, railway networks were responsible for bringing about modern infrastructure to the subcontinent. The massive scale of the railways project in colonial India cannot be underestimated, nor its effect on the lives of those living in the Subcontinent. The Lahore Railway Station has been one of the major focal points of this development, and more work should be done to pay tribute to all that the station has seen and experienced.
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