• Over 50 derailments in the past 10 months

By Maheesha Mudugamuwa  With over 50 incidents of train derailments reported in the past 10 months, passengers and Railway officials have raised a red flag about the safety of the public rail network.   The spate of accidents has raised serious concerns regarding the safety of passenger trains, with some engineers attached to Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) declaring that the existing lines need urgent rehabilitation. Some SLR officials that The Sunday Morning spoke to attributed the train derailments to the drop in speed limits and dilapidated conditions of tracks. Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Locomotive Engineers’ Association (LEA) President K.U. Konthasinghe stressed that in most lines the speed limit had now been dropped down to around 15 kmph from 40 kmph and as a result there had been a number of train derailments as well as delays. “We have requested the Ministry and the Department to amend the train timetables as the speed limit has now been dropped. Most trains are getting delayed and passengers are blaming drivers, but the delay is due to the dilapidated conditions of most of these lines. We can’t drive the trains on these tracks,” he stressed. According to Konthasinghe, when the speed of the locomotives drops, the risk of derailments rises. “We have experienced this condition since January this year and there have been quite a large number of derailment incidents. Compared to previous years, the numbers have increased dramatically,” Konthasinghe said.  In a most recent incident reported, the ‘Yal Devi’ express train travelling from Kankesanthurai to Colombo derailed in the Poonewa area last week, with two compartments and the locomotive of the train going off track. This disrupted the train services on the northern line and damaged the railway tracks. As a result, two night mail trains (Kankesanthurai-Colombo and Colombo-Kankesanthurai) scheduled to operate on Friday (11) have been cancelled. When contacted, All Ceylon Railway General Employees’ Union (ACRGEU) President P. Vithanage stressed that the main reason for the derailments was the lack of proper maintenance of railway lines. “If a train that carries thousands of passengers derails, there is a serious safety issue for the passengers,” he stressed, adding that during office rush hours, the trains carry thousands of passengers in a single compartment and the lack of sufficient trains and constant cancellation of trains had resulted in severe congestion at these times. “We urge the relevant authorities to do proper maintenance as it is always about the lives of the people. If a compacted train derails, the situation will be worse than that which we have seen so far. There is always a risk because of insufficient maintenance,” he stressed.    Commuters suffering   In addition to the safety risks, commuters are suffering due to the poor conditions of the railway compartments. When The Sunday Morning spoke to several daily commuters, many expressed their displeasure over the available facilities in trains while urging the Government to rectify the issues immediately and to uplift public transportation. “I travel every day from Galle to Colombo. All trains are packed with passengers. We can hardly breathe, especially when it is raining outside it is really difficult to travel. Some shutters are broken and fans are not working. In some compartments, passengers have found their own ways to operate fans as the Department has not fixed them. Most trains don’t have basic facilities,” Prasad Kalansooriya, a private sector executive and daily commuter from Galle said, outlining his experience.     Gayan Perera, a commuter from Kurunegala, had a similar experience. “I travel daily from Kurunegala to Colombo so I can save my travel time, but most days on my way back home from Colombo I hardly find space to breathe inside the train. Especially at night, most trains get cancelled or stopped halfway due to engine failures, signal drops, and other concerns. Most days, we can’t go back home on time,” he stressed. “Once I came from Anuradhapura to Kurunegala and we had to stay at a single place for nearly two hours as the train was stopped due to engine failure. All passengers were stuck in the train. It was night and the train had no lights at all. This mostly happens on Kandy and Badulla trains. Sometimes we get stuck in mountains and it’s scary,” he continued. The plight of almost all railway commuters is similar to that of Prasad and Gayan.   Sri Lanka Railways   SLR is a State department functioning under the Ministry of Transport. It is a major transport service provider and is the only rail transport organisation in the country. SLR transports both passengers and freight. At its inception, the railway was carrying more freight than passengers. But today, it is passenger-oriented. According to SLR data as of 2016, it operates approximately 396 trains, including 67 long-distance and 16 intercity trains and carries about 3.72 million passengers daily. It owns and maintains 1,561 km of rail tracks, 72 locomotives and power sets, 78,565 carriages, and the signalling network. At present, it has a workforce of 17,634.   Thousands of vacancies   According to SLR statistics, the number of passengers has increased by over 50% since January this year. Train fares too have recently been increased in parallel to the diesel price hikes. However, unions attached to the Railways Department claim that the main reason for the lack of proper facilities is due to the insufficiency of labour to conduct necessary maintenance. Vithanage stressed that around 9,000 vacancies had remained open for the past several years. “There is a serious shortage of skilled and unskilled workers at the Department. As per the recent circular, around 1,000 employees will be retired. We don’t have sufficient employees to maintain and repair engines, compartments, railways, and signal systems,” he stressed. According to Vithanage, around 70 trains have been getting cancelled on a daily basis due to these maintenance and signal issues. “We have enough trains and engines. The problem is that we don’t have a workforce,” he noted.  Explaining further, Vithanage said that the railways were currently not providing basic facilities to its commuters. “The situation of some trains is pathetic. Instead of improving these facilities and promoting public transportation, the authorities keep turning a blind eye.”   Corruption and mismanagement   While the unions make allegations about workforce shortages, the SLR has been a haven of alleged corruption and mismanagement as well. In its latest report on SLR issued last year, the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed that although 160 railway carriages were purchased at $ 82.6 million (Rs. 11,564 million) under the Indian Line of Credit (LOC), the expected project objectives could not be achieved. It is further revealed that as per the prepared engineering estimate, the cost of importing one carriage was $ 0.3 million, but when port charges, customs charges, insurance charges, and transportation charges were added, the actual cost was $ 0.558 million. Out of the 160 coaches, only 10 coaches were accepted and accordingly the other 150 coaches were recommended to be received without inspection. It was observed that there were deviations from the technical specifications, including the length, width, and height of the railway carriages, which had been increased beyond the standard.  Although the speed to be maintained is 120 kmh, the minimum radius of curves is 150 metres according to the specification, while the radius of the existing curves in railway yards is 90 metres. It was observed that other trains had also been affected by imposing speed limits to prevent this, as stated in the audit report. In addition, the NAO has also found that the Railways Department had planned to cover 84,224 train itineraries in 2021, but only 69,036 itineraries were covered in that year. “Thus, 15,188 train itineraries were cancelled and this was 18% of the total itineraries,” it is stated.   Foreign funds wasted   Highlighting the plight of the foreign-funded railways projects, it is stated that even though the feasibility study report and detailed plans including the expected goals to be achieved within the 20-year period under the Colombo Suburban Railway Project were completed in March 2021 and given to the Sri Lanka Railways Department through the relevant line ministry, there is no benefit to the economy by remaining idle without implementing the feasibility study. “For this feasibility study, under the Asian Development Bank loan facility, Rs. 1,446,952,381 had been spent and the loan instalment of $ 275,000 was to be paid semi-annually on 15 March 2022 and 15 September 2022,” the NAO stated. Furthermore, it is revealed that the Master Plan prepared for the Railways Department at a cost of $ 1.5 million under an assistance programme headed by the Asian Development Bank had not been implemented.   Waiting for infrastructure    When The Sunday Morning contacted SLR General Manager W.A.D.S. Gunasinghe, he said steps were currently being taken to upgrade the railways. “We have already commenced the procurement process to import railway infrastructure and soon after we receive the supplies, we will commence the rehabilitation process,” he added. When asked whether the current difficulties in opening Letters of Credit (LCs) had affected imports, the GM noted that there were issues previously but these had now been resolved with the support of the Transport Minister. Commenting on the derailments, Gunasinghe noted that until the infrastructure arrived in the country for a major rehabilitation, the existing lines would be repaired using the available resources. “We are expecting all essential infrastructure within the next two months,” he stressed, adding that a part of the northern railway line would be rehabilitated starting from January.