A Passengers view on the pandemonium at the Fort Station
This is not just an unruly group of passengers who interrupted the duties of the SLR men. I was part of the huge crowd of the Kelani Valley (KV) railway line who gathered to protest and asked for a remedy to the delays in the KV line. Delays of 30min-1.5hrs have become the norm for the trains in the KV line for about one and a half months. The trains leaving Colombo Fort takes 1hr to reach Maharagama (just 16km), 1.5hrs to Homagama (23km), 2hrs to Padukka (36km), 3.25hrs to Avissawella (57km).
This is quite funny since even the intercity train to Kandy (119km) reaches Kandy in 2.5-3hrs, even though it travels through steep inclines and sharp bends. Due to this delays in KV line trains passengers specially those travelling beyond Homagama face many hardships. There are many who have to catch their last buses home at 7-7.30pm from Padukka to reach their homes sometimes 12-15km from their stations.
There are also many passengers specially those who get down from lone stations like Pinnawala, Morakele, Gammana, Waga, Kadugoda and Arapangama who have to walk upto 5km in roads where no buses ply even at day time. The hardships endured by these passengers (who happen to be right in the middle of Colombo district where life is thought to be easy) are aggrevated due to the delay in trains. For many between Padukka and Kosgama, the trains are their only direct mode of public transport to Colombo since there are no buses.
Delays when happening once in a while can be tolerated but when this goes on for months, what else is there to do other than go to the authorities. It was almost three weeks ago, that we demonstrated peacefully at Homagama station when the SLR promised to remedy the situation. They gave us 2 more trains, which rather than solving our problems, made travel worse making trains get more delayed since this is a single line where a train traveling after another has to wait till the train before, to pass the next main station and clear the section.
We did not ask for more trains but we only asked for the one’s already there, to travel according to the time table which is made taking into consideration capacity of the KV line. Yesterday (21st Nov) there was some breakdown in signals between Fort and Maradana, and the Fort station has informed the passengers of other lines that their trains will start from Maradana, but the passengers of three trains (5.25pm, 6.00pm and 6.30pm)in the Fort station were kept waiting while two trains departed from Maradana to Avissawella. This was the reason the huge crowd of 3 trains went to the Fort Station Master to ask for a train.
At the SM’s room it was some of the Railway officers who started throwing plant pots and other things at the passengers which ultimately made the crowd unruly. This resulted in damage to SM’s room and the Raiway security and Police were called in. The police took hold of 4 innocent passengers who went into the SM’s room to discuss with them, they were not the one’s who made damages to the property. After that our only demand was the release of 4 of our fellow passengers, but the police suddenly came out and dragged in, some more of the passengers whome they could get hold of. Altogether, I hear that 8 passengers who went peacefully to discuss things and demonstrated were arrested and taken to Fort Police Station.
This was while the culprits including the officers who started all this were roaming freely howling abuse at passengers. The police too acted without any restraint and they used force to downplay the hardships of the masses. While condemning all this, we also commend the DIG Colombo who listened patiently to both us the passengers and the SLR officers, and spoke in gentlemanly language in contrast to his lower police officers. Ultimately the problems of the passengers in KV line are left unsolved and we had to go home in the train at 8.10pm, which left Fort without any announcement and travelled slowly keeping to the normal delays. We reached Padukka at 10.30pm which took us 2hrs 20min to travel just 36km! May be it is time to privatise the Railways of Sri Lanka which would make this a more efficient, low-cost and profitable service.
By Devasiri Gamalathge
Source: Dailymirror
Tags: authorities, colombo, crowds, hardships, intercity train, kelani valley line, kv line, police officers, public transport, railway line, sharp bends, single line, steep inclines, unruly group
November 24th, 2008 at 2:43 am
I think when a country spend such money on war and not developing the infrastructure this is the problem naturally develop. I moved to Canada only 4 months ago from Sri Lanka and every week I travel 150 Km in my car in one hour and 20 minuets in most whether conditions. So create leaders who know how to bring peace and develop the country.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Yes Ratna madam, We can sell some land to LTTE for some billions and develop railways…..Its like “Atuwa Kadaa Putuwa” haduwaa wage”…….
Humanenatarian missions doesn’t have any connections with railways. Actually those terrorist destroyed our rail track and used it for there bunkers. We want to get them back…not only the track but also the land.