brand logo

Trains operate on old schedule: Insufficient reservations for Denuwara Menike and Sri Devi

09 Jun 2020

By Sarah Hannan  Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) resumed its scheduled train operations yesterday (8), with the exception of two trains, The Morning learnt. “All 49 daily trains are now operating in line with our regular timetable. However, as we are yet to receive a considerable number of reservations for the trains operating on the Northern Line from Kankesanthurai to Colombo (Sri Devi Intercity) and on the Main Line from Badulla to Colombo (Denuwara Menike Intercity), these trains will not commence operations immediately. “The Polonnaruwa to Colombo Intercity, Jaffna to Colombo Express, Colombo to Kandy Intercity (up and down), and Galle to Colombo Mix (up and down) will start operations from today (9),” General Manager of Railways M.J.D. Fernando noted. The Ministry of Transport Management, Power and Energy permitted interprovincial travel since yesterday, with the public now allowed travel to and from the Colombo and Gampaha Districts, relaxing the nearly three-month travel restriction that was in place to prevent Covid-19 from spreading. SLR has now introduced the option for commuters to reserve their seat in the office trains for the entire week, permitting the ease of managing seating arrangements for commuters that travel on a daily basis. Last week, SLR stated that only 25,000 seats are available in all the trains that operate on a day-to-day basis, however on average at least 147,000 passengers use trains for their daily commute. Once the entire workforce is allowed to report to work and the schools commence, the transport systems will need to be thought through.


More News..