Well, maybe not. That would just be silly. But today’s Pakistan Times reports that President General Pervez Musharraf on Saturday [2007-03-03] called for fast development of the Pakistan Railways on modern lines to provide economical travel to the people, swift movement of goods and to create linkages with neighbouring countries.

He said the current target of increasing speed of trains up to 140 km/hour was not enough. “Today the world is moving on to magnetic levitation trains and monorails for mass transport, we need to go for these,” he added.

The President referring to his vision for the Pakistan Railways spoke of plans to link Chamman to Kandahar in Afghanistan and to build an ambitious rail track from Havelian to the Khunjerab Pass to connect with the Chinese mainline.

“Both the governments of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have expressed desire to join this rail link as it will provide them an access to the Gwadar Port,” he said.