Claim: The Green Line train running between Karachi and Islamabad has been restored.
Fact: The train line, which was cancelled in August 2022 following heavy rains and floods, will be restored from January 2023. The claim appears to be based on a fake notification doing the rounds on social media.
Fact or Fiction?
On 13 December 2o22, a Facebook user Mr.Phirtu published a post with the caption, “Green Line Train Is Restored.”
The Green Line was cancelled along with some other trains after Pakistan Railways partially suspended its operations in August 2022 due to heavy rains and floods in different parts of the country.
Soch Fact Check found the claim to be misleading. It appears to be based on a fake notification dated 14 December about “restoration of passenger trains” doing the rounds on social media. It states that it has been decided that the Green Line Express will be restored on 20 December.
Pakistan Railways confirmed via a tweet that the notification is fake. “Fake News Alert. Pakistan Railways administration has not issued any such letter. Any train recovery will be reported on this forum [Twitter],” their tweet reads.
Soch Fact Check ascertained that the font used for the date of the notification and ‘Green Line Express’ is Serif, which is different from the font used for the rest of the letter.
Pakistan Railways announced on 29 December that the Green Line service will be restored from January 2023.
Virality:
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 30-day period leading up to 23 December using the following search term:
- Green Line Train Is Restored
The search term turned up 13 posts with 1,117 interactions on Facebook.
The claim can be found here and here.
On YouTube, the claim was found here.
Conclusion: The Green Line train will be restored from January 2023.