Railway unions yesterday charged that the Mahinda Rajapakse administration is still working on a plan to privatise the Sri Lanka Railway (SLR).
The All Ceylon Railway Employees General Union (ACREGU) said that Transport Minister Dulles Alahapperuma’s statement on the government looking at private sector partnership to revive the country’s railway system was proof that the government [...]
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 [...]
Pressing passenger issues must be addressed
Utter mayhem broke loose at Fort Railway Station a few days ago when a group of enraged passengers started attacking the railway workers and damaging the railway property.
Although it may seem just another case of civil unrest, caused by a single incident of trains being delayed, it commands a closer [...]
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 [...]
Trade unions affiliated to Sri Lanka Railways have charged that the leasing out of the southern coastal railway line to an Indian rail construction company on July 21 (Monday), was the first step toward the planned railway privatisation programme.
The government on Monday leased out the southern coastal railway line from Galle to Matara to Indian [...]
The Indian Government has pledged US $ 168 million to Sri Lanka to develop the island’s railways sector.
The financial assistance, provided under the Indian Credit Line (ICL) will be used to upgrade Sri Lanka’s coastal railway line hit by the 2004 tsunami and to strengthen the operating fleet of the Railways Department.
Though the coastal train [...]
The colour light signal and communication system of railways has been further extended at a cost of Rs. 3 billion, Transport Minister Dulles Alahapperuma said yesterday.
“On the coast line, colour light signals have been installed up to Matara and are controlled by the main centralized control panel at Maradana. Colour light facility is available up [...]
The Sri Lanka Railways will run trains and powersets using bio-diesel by 2010 to curtail the drain on foreign exchange to import petroleum products, Transport Minister, Dullas Alahapperuma said yesterday.
The main source of producing bio-diesel will be Weta Endaru (Jetropha) which would be grown along the railway reservations on either side of the 1200 kilometre-long [...]
