It was by a quirk of circumstance that my friend and batch mate AGA and I found ourselves in the office of Mr. Vaithialingam at Railway Headquarters one day about the end of June 1960. This amiable, gentle person was the Chief Engineer, Way and Works, Sri Lanka Railways.
Year after year for several years he [...]
Never a day passes without some incident in the railways – derailments, delays, strikes, etc. To get to the root cause, it is best to go back to the era of the legendary B. D. Rampala and before, when the trains ran to time and derailments, accidents were very very rare.
The derailments are mainly due [...]
Running on a similar track to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) expansion project, the Sri Lanka Railways Department is making plans to construct an Internal Container Terminal (ICT) close to the commercial hub of Sri Lanka for the first time in the country’s history.
“We have already chosen Veyangoda, Ratmalana or Sapugaskanda to go ahead [...]
Railway commuters had to undergo numerous hardships due to a strike launched by the Railway Locomotive Engineers Union during the weekend. The union has decided not to report for work on public holidays as a protest against the suspension of some of its members including its President.
Department sources said that only 90 train routes out [...]
Named with grim irony Samudradevi, or Queen of the Sea, the train that left Colombo Fort station shortly after 6am on Sunday for its regular run to the southern city of Galle was full even by Sri Lankan standards.
As many as 1,700 passengers crammed its carriages or hung from the sides. It was a holiday [...]
While Transport Minister Dullas Alahapperuma recently laid the foundation stone for the proposed dormitory for train and bus commuters in Colombo, the pro – JVP Railway Trade Unions want the sanitation facilities at the Fort Railway Station, presently controlled by a private company, to be taken back by the Railway Department, as commuters had to [...]
Commemorating the fourth anniversary of Sri Lanka’s unprecedented tragedy of the deadly Tsunami, the Railway Department is scheduled to launch today the repaired engine of the train that was struck by the tsunami in 2004.
The historical first journey of the engine will commence at about 6:30 a.m. today from the Fort Railway station with the participation of [...]
Yal Devi made her maiden journey on April 23, 1956, with two other trains, Udarata Menike and Ruhunu Kumari and because of this many, Sri Lankans considered them as three sisters.
Trains no longer arrive at the Jaffna railway station. The familiar ‘kuchu kuchu’ of locomotive engines and the ‘hoooooo’ of their whistles, no longer rent [...]
