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Delhi-Lahore bus overtakes Samjhauta Express

Onkar Singh in Amritsar

The ticket sales of Samjhauta Express -- the only train linking India and Pakistan -- have fallen drastically. But that's not the news. The news is that it's not because of the trouble in Kargil. It's because of the overwhelming popularity of the Delhi-Lahore bus!

Every Monday and Thursday, the Samjhauta Express leaves Amritsar early in the morning with just a handful of passengers. The twentyseven-kilometre-long journey between Amritsar and Attari takes only half an hour. But it takes more than four hours to travel one and a half kilometres across the border and about the same time on the other side of the border before it reaches Lahore.

On a hot day. it's an awful lot of time. That is exactly the reason why the air-conditioned Delhi-Lahore bus is always fully booked, while the Samjhauta Express has seen its passengers dwindling.

Of course, there is no denying that Kargil weighs heavily on the minds of passengers crossing the border from either side. "In happier times passengers don't mind spending this much time before they reach their destination because once you reach the destination, it's all behind you. But now because of Kargil there is extra pressure...you never know when war will break out," Mohammad Ali told this correspondent before boarding the special train to Lahore.

With the fear of war comes the fear of discontinuation of the train services, which would be really sad. ''The people of two countries want to live in peace and harmony. But who cares about people," said Ali as he settled down with his luggage.

There were hardly twenty to twentyfive passengers in Ali's compartment. He admitted that the Delhi-Lahore bus is the preferred mode of transport now. However, he was confident that the train would regain its popularity.

"Whenever a new thing is started it catches people's imagination and old becomes unfashionable. Not everybody can afford the air-conditioned comforts of a bus,'' said one of Ali's co-passengers.

The crowd at the station, however, does not give any indication that the two countries nearly at war with each other.

"There is no problem whatsoever. Both the train and the bus continue to ply without any restrictions. While the bus carries its full load, the number of passengers travelling by the special train has dropped substantially," a senior officer of the Punjab police told rediff.com. When asked if there was any security problem, the officer replied in the negative.

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