by Chandra Edirisuriya

From the Daily News of Thursday, 13 December 2001

Rail transport started in this country with the running of the first train from Colombo to Kandy on April 26 1867. In due course, the Colombo - Kandy line was extended to Matale, in 1880. Colombo was connected to Badulla via Peradeniya Junction in 1924, to Kankesanthurai via Polgahawela Junction in 1905, to Trincomalee and Batticaloa via Maho and Gal Oya Junctions in 1927 and 1928 respectively, to Talaimannar Pier via Medawachchiya in 1914 to Puttalam via Ragama Junction and to Matara in 1895.

In addition to the broad gauge railway to the above destinations Colombo was connected with Opanayake via Ratnapura by a narrow gauge line in 1919. As this line followed the Kelani River it came to be known as the Kelani Valley (KV) line.

It is significant that the introduction of the railway into this country and to India was contemporaneous with its birth in England because the British were keen on having a cheap mode of transport for passengers and goods in their colonies. The British Government had opened up vast tracts of land in the low country as well as the upcountry, by giving it at one rupee an acre, to those who had the money, to grow tea, rubber and coconut.

Plantation produce was taken to railway stations, by bullock cart and later by motor lorry, from where it was transported by train to Colombo to be exported. Passenger transport by the railway went hand in hand with goods transport and the trains provided three classes of compartments. The first class compartments were well appointed with cushioned luxurious seats.

There were also the first class sleeping berths. The second class compartments were a little less in comfort and there were also the second class sleeping berths. The third class compartments had wooden louvre type seats with a liberal coating of French polish. All compartments were made of Burma teak wood and there were even wooden carriages painted brick red to transport horses for races at Nuwara Eliya and Galle.

We, as small boys, liked to see the horses standing with their heads visible above the neck, through the window in the carriages. There were even boxes in the guard van to transport animals like dogs, the doors to which could be opened from outside. Even now there are wagons for the transport of cattle and goats.

The first and the second classes in the trains were at first exclusively used by Europeans. So much so when my father and mother travelled for the first time by second class from Gampaha to Nawalapitiya, around 1930, when my father was the Head master of Ginigathhena Government mixed school and my mother, an Assistant Teacher, soon after their marriage, some Europeans on the train had questioned as to how natives could travel second class.

My father had explained to them that, as a Government servant he was entitled to second class railway warrants.

The locomotives at that time were steam powered, ranging from powerful double engined garrote class, bison shaped giants, majestic class A load A locomotives to the smallest shunting engines. The class A load A locomotives were named after British Governors and the lesser ones after leading colleges like Ananda College, S. Thomas' College, Royal College, St. Joseph's College and St. Peter's College.

The last class A load A steam engine, painted red, was named after King George VI.The first diesel electric locomotives to be brought to this country were the MI class General Electric brick red engines, resembling elephants, from Britain and the inaugural run was from Colombo to Kandy, taking Queen Elizabeth II, by special train, on her first visit here in 1953. The next year, in 1954 M2 class locomotives made at Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) in Canada were brought under Colombo Plan Aid.

My first trip by train was on the KV line from Pannipitiya to Cotta Road, in 1947, when my father and mother were at Kottawa Government Mixed School and I was a standard 3 student at Dharmapala Vidyalaya, Pannipitiya. In 1950 and 1951 when I was at Ananda College and boarded at 18, Hedges Court my father used to take me home, for weekends by the 7.35 p.m. Diesel De Luxe, with box spring cushioned seats, from Maradana to Gampaha.

The Ceylon Government Railway (CGR) as it was then called, was operating its services very smoothly at the time. There were no train delays. If a train got late by even two minutes, explanation was called for from the train crew. So much so I used to travel by the 6.20 am Badulla night mail train from Gampaha. On Mondays returning to the College hostel, after a weekend at home and it almost never got late, arriving at Maradana at 7.00 am.

One day in 1954 as the train stopped at Maradana railway station and started, on its last lap, to Fort railway station, a First Class sleeping berth attendant was shouting, holding a golf umbrella out of the window of the moving train "Mahattaya, Mahattaya Kude Beriwela" (Sir you have forgotten to take your umbrella). Just then a gentleman in a well starched tussore suit and tie ran up to the man and took the umbrella. It was Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike returning, with his family, after a weekend in Nuwara Eliya.

Coming out of the railway station I saw their CY series blue Plymouth limousine under the porch.

The long distance trains were like castles those days with excellent restaurant facilities. The only complaint was an occasional cockroach in a compartment.Sometime later Chinese made steel compartments were imported replacing wooden ones and M4 class MLW locomotives also came in. Power sets were imported for suburban use the first being those received under the Sri Lanka America friendship program. Later Schindler Swiss made powersets, Hitachi and of Chinese made followed.

Romanian compartments were added to the rolling stock subsequently. In the mid 1960s WI Henschel and W2 class, diesel hydraulic locomotives were imported from West Germany and East Germany, respectively. Krupp locomotives from Germany and Kawasaki locomotives from Japan were brought for the KV line. Already Hunslett Locomotives had been imported for shunting purposes. The preference was for the diesel electric type in view of future electrification and M5 class, Hitachi, M6 class Henschel, M7 class GEC to mark Queen Elizabeth II's second visit, M8 Indian and finally M9 class Alstom locomotives, were imported.

The last mentioned ones are fitted with two units of 1600 bhp each, engines, ideally suited to long distance haulage of heavy loads on flat terrain, once Sri Lanka is unified, once again, to Kankesanthurai, Talaimannar Pier and Trinco-Batticaloa.

The railway was the safest mode of transportation those days but there is a doubt now about it, because of the number of accidents in later years starting with the Talaimannar-Colombo train accident at Wilwatte in Mirigama in 1965, owing to a drunken driver exceeding speed limits on a bend.

Train delays, uncleanliness of both compartments and locomotives, sub-standard catering in restaurant cars and above all the discourtesy and indifference of employees in station masters' offices, to commuters are the negative factors that detract from attracting passengers to train travel, even though fares are less than half the bus fares.