Opinion – Railways on the wrong track
“Look at these new coaches. They are made of stainless steel. A proud announcement was made that it was to avoid corrosion on the coastline. If that is the case, all the railway bridges along that line must be made of stainless steel. Have you ever seen stainless steel ships? Why couldn’t they use aluminium or fibreglass, if there was such a problem? Now they are new. A thousand eyes will protect them. In about five or six years, nobody would be worried about them. Then slowly and surely sly hands will be at work.
This is Sri Lanka and not China!…”
When I was in service, a railway driver spent his holiday in Japan. I asked him upon his return about the Japanese railways. He snapped that Sri Lanka couldn’t achieve that kind of advancement even in another hundred years.
When I saw the newly imported Chinese coaches, I remembered that conversation. No doubt they are superior in every respect. It is right, as Sri Lankans, to be proud of these technical and artistic masterpieces. But, the question remains whether we can afford them.
Last January, the Commercial Superintendent of the Sri Lanka Railway (SLR), questioned on the reason for shortening peak hour long trains and the abominable condition of existing coaches, replied that all those inconveniences would vanish by the end of the year because by then 100 new coaches would be in service.
The new coaches have come. Can they be attached to those shortened trains?
In SLR, the trains are controlled with vacuum brakes. During B. D. Rampala’s time, (around 1965), two sets of Hitachi luxury trains were imported from Japan. They are controlled by air brakes. The power-set trains imported thereafter also have air brakes. All other railway rolling stocks, whether passenger or goods, are controlled by vacuum brakes. So there was no hindrance in forming trains with any of those vehicles.
Now SLR faces a new problem because these 100 new coaches are controllable only by air brakes. So shunters cannot mingle them with other vehicles. The solution to this problem is to replace long distant express trains, such as Ruhunu Kumari and Yal Devi, with new air brake coaches and to form short distant trains with coaches thus withdrawn.
Then another problem crops up. Where are the locomotives for these coaches? All the M- class locomotives get themselves controlled by air brakes. They are equipped with vacuum exhausters, too. When vehicles are attached and locomotive brakes are applied, vacuum brakes also get applied proportionately. Then M2 class locomotives do not have necessary jaw couplings. These new coaches are equipped only with jaw couplings. Of the remaining M Class locos, M8s are not powerful enough for heavy loads. The number of remaining roadworthy locos is about 40. Now, we have to alter a few of them to suit the new coaches. I do not know exactly whether such converted locos are useful on other vacuum controlled vehicles.
I can remember that once Mr. Rampala shouted, “We railway men are not theoreticians. We are practical men.” So, these are all practical problems. The new coaches came with spare parts. Is it because they are liable to breakdown? If a coach becomes a serious impediment due to some reason, the train crew is compelled to detach it at the closest road side station. Later fitters come and make it roadworthy to be taken to Colombo. You cannot attach it to a passing goods train.
If a train formed with new coaches begins journey from Matara and breaks down before Ahangama, the track has to be closed temporarily, if there is no converted loco nearby.
In both cases, a train running in Colombo with a converted loco must be cancelled and utilised to solve the problem.
Never mind all those surmises and suppose we run the service successfully with new coaches. Yet, there is another setback. These coaches are 65 feet long. They cannot go beyond Rambukkana because of the sharp curves.
The SLR has hitherto used two types of coaches on this line. One type is 55 feet long and the other 45 feet long. Fifty five-foot coaches may be run up to kandy. But, beyond Gampola they cannot go because of extra sharpness of curves beyond that point. Only 45-foot-long coaches can travel further. When the first of the new coaches was hanging from a ship’s crane, a big banner across it boasted that that was the first carriage to be imported in 15 years. In 1992, as far as I could remember 45-foot coaches were imported from India. They are rendering yeoman service in the upper division.
Someone had the audacity to say that our traditional coach builders in India, Romania or England were now no more. So, the SLR’s omniscient engineering pundit, having discovered that the only coach-building place in the world was China, got the Chinese carriages down. Thanks!
Now we must cut the foot to suit the shoe! Let’s forget our environment and stop worrying about soil erosion or landslides or destroying tea estates. Let us cut, chop and hammer to alter the railway line to take these new rollingstock wonders to Badulla. For, the biggest demand for coaches is in the upper division because power sets cannot go there.
The passenger demand for railways will not increase. Extra comfortable coaches may help increase it marginally. But that will never justify the enormous capital expenditure to be incurred.
Look at the new coaches. They are made of stainless steel. A proud announcement was made that it was to avoid corrosion on the coastline. If that is the case, then all the railway bridges along that line must be made of stainless steel. Have you ever seen stainless steel ships? Why couldn’t they use aluminium or fiberglass if there was such a problem? Now they are new and a thousand eyes will protect them. After about five or six years nobody would be worried about them. Then slowly and surely sly hands will be at work, this is Sri Lanka and not China!
Do not think that SLR is a white elephant. Although the demand for its passenger transport has reached the ceiling, its latent demand for heavy transport is still at a bare minimum. If the SLR enters the business of container transport, it can easily capture that market. To enter that type of big business the SLR needs about 50 or more powerful locomotives. While the preliminary planning is underway in that regard, the entire SLR goods rolling stock is vacuum controlled. I do not dispute the superior efficiency air brake over vacuum. But, given the economic problem of Sri Lanka, how to get the capital necessary to convert all the railway rolling stock to air brakes? Or are we to discard them wholesale?
Having carefully considered all these, the Operating Section of the SLR opposed the proposal to buy these coaches at the very inception. But, their opposition was ignored by the higher authorities.
It has been announced that new locomotives will be ordered. The engineers will bring locos with air brakes and run showy passenger trains to idle away in sheds after a day’s turn, when goods traffic is held up for want of motive power. The SLR may not enter container transport even in the next century.
According to the 2006 Annual Report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, “The Sri Lanka Railways is operating at a large operating loss and producing services that are of high cost and insufficient quality, burdening the Government budget….” The operating loss for SLR for the refer red year was Rupees million 3,981. For the last ten years the loss has increased unbelievably. When compared with the loss of 1997 this is an increase of 600%. The Central Bank feels the need to reorganise the SLR administration.
The devastating cancer eating into every cell of SLR is politicisation of the Transportation Sub-department. I do not single out any political party because under every government, after Rampala was chased out, this malady has thrived.
Engineers scare the new General Manager with their bombastic technical terms. They are technical experts, no doubt. But, the economics governing the railway transport is certainly outside their expertise. The over-ruling of the objections of the SLR operating authorities amply prove my argument.
They know next to nothing about the country’s economic requirements. Having realised the mistake, please try to rectify it.
It is a crime to waste releases from the Treasury at this juncture.
I firmly believe the present Minister of Railways and GMR can solve this problem, if they are determined to act impartially.
By H. D. I. Anthony,
Railway Special Class Head Guard (Retired).
Source: The Island
Tags: air brakes, carriages, china, coastline, corrosion, fibreglass, hundred years, inconvenience, japanese railways, jaw couplings, long trains, luxury trains, railway bridges, rolling stocks, sri lankans, stainless steel, steel ships, vacuum brakes, white elephant
