Sri Lanka Railways Forum

The steel frame of a flyover, which is being built over the rail crossing on the Colombo-Kandy road at Pattiyahandiya, Kelaniya, was erected last night.

The flyover, the first of its kind in Sri Lanka, was imported from the United Kingdom and fixed by a local company. Over 180 people are being employed by the project.

The project commenced on January 4 and its first phase is to be completed by March 25. The whole project is scheduled to be completed in July this year. As the fixing of the frame starts tomorrow, the project engineers request the public to take alternative routes to avoid unnecessary delays and traffic jams

Source: Colombo Page

A van was hit by a Train at an unprotected level crossing near Gelioya yesterday. One person was killed and three others were injured in the accident. The injured have been admitted to the Kandy Teaching hospital.

The persons travelling on the van were employees of Dialog Telekom, the mobile telecommunication company. The police are conducting inquiries.

Dozens of people die at these unprotected crossings each year. There are about 700 unprotected railway level crossings in Sri Lanka and the department lacks the necessary funds needed to install the level crossings systems.

Source: Sri Lanka Railways Forum

Special Train services have been arranged by the Railway Department on Saturday & Sunday for the convenience of the pilgrims visiting the annual celebration of the St. Anne’s Church Talavillu, Puttalam.

The department has arranged for four special trains between Colombo Fort and Puttalam. The special trains from Colombo Fort will leave towards Puttalam at 9:35 AM and 1:10 PM respectively, while the special Trains from Puttalam towards Colombo Fort will leave at 2:45 PM and 6:15 PM respectively.

Meanwhile the Transport Minister has said that new Bus services between some important Railway Stations and main points of interest will be commenced to mark the 50th anniversary of the SLTB.

Source: Sri Lanka Railways Forum

On 20.02.08 there was a news item in “The Island” in which, the Minister of Transport has said that the Railways annual income had been only 2.5 billion rupees while the expenditure had reached 10 billion rupees. It further says that the deficit of 7.5 billion rupees had to be covered by a grant from the Treasury.

When I joined the Railways in 1961 the annual income was 300 million rupees while the expenditure was 330 million rupees making a deficit of only Rs.30 million rupees a year. If the department operated presently at the same level of operation as in 1961, the figures when converted to present value and projected, the income and expenditure work out to 8.4 billion income and 9.24 billion expenditure with a deficit of only 0.84 billion a year.

Obviously, the area to be looked into immediately is the area that generates the income, which is far below the level of income we had in 1961. There is nothing that can be attributed for this drop in income and in fact, the income should be much higher than in 1961.

Read the rest of this story »

A train service between Batticaloa and Polonnaruwa not operated in the last few years due to terrorist activity, will be re-commenced by the Government under the Nagenahira Navodaya programme.

Fulfilling another pledge in the Mahinda Chinthana to upgrade infrastructure facilities like transport in the liberated areas, this step would vastly cater to the community needs of the Eastern Province.

This project is another transport sector endeavour which would benefit railway commuters.

A Transport Ministry spokesman said the new railway station in Rideethanna between Batticaloa and Polonnaruwa was opened recently.

The Ministry has invested Rs. 2 million for this station.

Read the rest of this story »

The Transport Ministry is planing to absorb another 850 employees of the Railway Department to the permanent cadre.

They had not been granted permanency for the last 15 years.

These employees who worked on a contract and substitute basis in the Railway lines and maintenance divisions of the CGR have fulfilled the criteria for permanency.

A Spokesman of the Transport Ministry told the Daily News that Minister Dulles Alahapperuma was personally involved in this matter by discussing with the Treasury to release the funds to pay their salaries.

“We hope to absorb them to the permanent cadre within the next 60 days,” he said. The Minister has already obtained approval from the Salaries and Cadre Commission and the Public Service Commission in this regard.

Read the rest of this story »

Even if the proposed 100% railway fare hike comes into effect it will still not make the Sri Lanka Railway profitable as the department currently runs at a loss of 300% as per revenue, states the Sri Lanka Railway Department.

General Manager, Railways Department, L. Gunaruwan told The Morning Leader that the department made Rs. 2,500 million as income last year but incurred an expenditure four times that, of Rs. 10,000 million despite cost cutting initiatives undertaken by the management.

He said, “A price hike of 100% will have a marginal impact on the losses we are incurring but we still welcome it; if this will actually happen, I don’t know.”

According to Gunaruwan a price hike has been under discussion for years but the department had not been officially told by the government if approval has been granted, and that though news of a fare revision had emerged before there was no progress thereafter.

Read the rest of this story »