The decline of the Sri Lankan Railways
The causes which led to the decline of the railway are legion, running back to 1970 May. Enumerating the causes would run into hundreds of pages. To put it briefly the problem is mainly due to the railways being modelled on the British system, having been introduced by the Britishers when the island was a British Colony.
Britain specialised in running branch trains instead of direct trains, and today all their branch lines are closed down, Sri Lanka Railways did the same thing in the Avissawella-Yatiyantota Branch line being closed down, the entire KV line was closed down and reopened up to Avissawella, the Uda Pussellawa railway being closed down, the only existing branch still in existence is the line from Kandy to Matale, on which no direct trains to or from Matale are run to Colombo or elsewhere (until recently).
There have been more general managers from 1970 to date than there were from 1864 to 1970. Only one GMR contributed towards improvements between 1970 to-date. He introduced direct trains from Matale to Matara and vice versa, which service is now non existent. He also introduced a direct service between Vavuniya to Matara, and broad gauged the line from Maradana to Avissawella, without discontinuing the running of the narrow gauge service.
The railway is full of inexperienced clerical oriented personnel at the top, square pegs in round holes, who lack practical operational knowledge and experience, as well as technical know-how, which has contributed in no small measure to its present unfortunate decline.
By G. M. C. Bartholomeusz, Peradeniya.
Source: Sunday Observer
Tags: branch lines, british raj, broad gauge, decline, general managers, improvements, inexperience, kelani valley line, narrow gauge, operational knowledge, peradeniya, sri lanka railways, trains, uda pussellawa line, vavuniya
