The Awam Express has gained a new dining car, introduced as part of the upgraded Karachi to Peshawar service that Sindh Governor Syed Muhammad Nihal Hashmi inaugurated in Karachi on Monday, Business Recorder reported.
According to the Business Recorder report, the upgraded train was launched under a public-private partnership, and “a new dining car had also been introduced to provide better food and refreshment services during the journey”. On a route as long as Karachi to Peshawar, where passengers spend many hours on board, a dedicated car for meals is a practical upgrade rather than a luxury extra.
The train has run under private operation since earlier this year. Pakistan Railways has handed the commercial management of the Awam Express to AA Enterprises, and Railways Minister Hanif Abbasi inaugurated the outsourcing at Rawalpindi Railway Station on Monday, the Express Tribune and Profit reported. The Awam Express is one of the best known long-distance services on the Karachi to Peshawar main line, carrying students, workers, families and traders the length of the country, which is why changes to it draw attention well beyond regular rail users.
A dining car gives long-distance passengers a proper place to sit and eat during the journey. (File photo)
Photo: Maksym Kozlenko, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What the Awam Express upgrade includes
Launch coverage by PakWheels described a train whose exterior is largely unchanged but whose interior has been upgraded, running with a rake of about 20 coaches that includes economy, AC standard and AC business classes, with the new dining car presented as the highlight of the relaunch. Video reports from the launch day said the dining car will normally join the train at Lahore, and was specially attached at Peshawar for the inauguration run towards Lahore.
The dining car matters because food on long Pakistani train journeys has usually meant platform vendors and packed meals eaten at the seat. A proper dining car gives families a table, a menu and a break from the compartment, which is one of the clearest differences passengers will feel between the old service and the upgraded one.
Dining cars were once a familiar part of long-distance rail travel in Pakistan before they faded from most services, so their return on a flagship route is also a small piece of railway heritage coming back. For the operator, a dining car is a visible promise that the private management model is about the passenger experience and not only about fares and ticketing, and it gives travellers a reason to judge the new management kindly.
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Private operators and a busier rail network
The Awam Express is not the only train being upgraded this way. The Karakoram Express has also relaunched under a private operator, Prime Rail, with a first AC sleeper class, and Pakistan Railways has been renewing its fleet, including 70 new coaches received from China. Better trains feed directly into domestic travel, the same sector promoted at events such as Pakistan Travel Mart 2026 in Karachi.
For regular passengers between Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar, the test of the upgrade will be simple: cleaner coaches, reliable timings and now a dining car where a hot meal can be had on the move. If AA Enterprises can hold that standard, the Awam Express could become the model other long routes follow.
The route also matters for visitors. Peshawar is the gateway city for travellers heading on to the valleys of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Lahore and Karachi are the country’s two biggest city destinations, so a more comfortable train serves tourists as well as everyday passengers. A dining car will not decide anyone’s holiday on its own, but it is the kind of small, visible improvement that makes long-distance rail feel like a choice rather than a compromise.
Sources
- Business Recorder: Sindh governor inaugurates upgraded Awam Express train service
- The Express Tribune: PR outsources Awam Express management
- NewzTodays: Upgraded Awam Express Launches Karachi to Peshawar Route
- Featured photo: Mazahirshah, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Body photo: Maksym Kozlenko, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Umar Farooq is the founder and editor of Good News Pakistan. An engineer by profession and a writer by passion, he started the site in December 2022 to share good news from Pakistan, and has since written and edited more than 200 articles about its people, sports, science, business and world records. He believes the story of Pakistan is bigger than its headlines, and that good news, told honestly, is worth telling every day.