German envoy shares 'amazing' train travel experience with Sheikh Rasheed

ISLAMABAD: German Ambassador to Pakistan Bernhard Schlagheck on Tuesday met with the Minister Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad, informing the latter of his train journey from Rawalpindi to Karachi, ARY NEWS reported.

The two also discussed the ongoing uplift projects including the Main Line (ML-1) project.

The German ambassador said that the railways connect people with different cultures and areas in the country. “I had a very amazing experience of meeting Pakistani people during my journey,” he said.

The minister said that an improvement in railway is directly linked with the prosperity of the country. “We are upgrading the rail network through the Main Line (ML-1) project,” he said adding the upgrading process of the 1872-kilometre long track would begin from this year.

This project will not only help in shortening the distances between the major cities but would also help in improving the mobilization of freight trains, the minister said.

He said that currently, the department is facilitating the travel of 70 million passengers in a year. Rasheed thanked the ambassador for travelling via train.

On January 29, driven by his “love for train rides”, German Ambassador to Pakistan Bernhard Schlagheck set out on a train journey from Islamabad to Karachi to explore the country.

The journey that he said took him 26 hours in total turned out to be an “amazing experience” for the envoy.

Sharing a video about his trip on his official Twitter handle, he said: “I love train rides – they are a great way to discover a country.”

“So I went on a train journey from #Islamabad to #Karachi – 26 hours in total! Amazing experience – thank you @PakrailPK.”