Pakistan, Iran to restore passenger train service

Islamabad, Jan 19: Pakistan and Iran have decided to restore a fortnightly passenger train service between the two countries by September due to improvement in the security situation.

A Joint Expert Committee meeting was held here on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported. The train service will run between Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta and the Iranian cities of Mashhad and Qom.

The service will largely cater to the needs of pilgrims during Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar.

The two sides also decided to run 15 regular freight trains between Quetta and Iran's Zahedan due to the demands of the business community.

The Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul train also came up for discussion at the meeting.