Passengers lost in absurdist train journey to Bandarawela

Someone told me and my partner that the ideal way to visit Bandarawela was to go by train, and to return the same way. So we decided to take that mode of travel, and book seats in the observation coach in order to make the most of the journey.

Recalling a delightful trip to Bandarawela undertaken many years ago, we assumed that even if the rail service had deteriorated over the years, the scenery would more than compensate. Our plan was to buy our tickets in advance when we next visited Kandy (we live 20 kilometres from the Central Province capital). “Just in case”, we called the station the night before our trip to ensure we would get seats (if you have lived away from Sri Lanka, you tend to get paranoid after a few months back in your dear homeland).

What we heard on the telephone should have been warning enough of the bizarre, Kafkaesque events to follow. The person at the other end of the line was most impatient, not in the least willing to answer simple queries about tickets, ticket prices and when and where to board the train (for your information, the Colombo-Badulla train does not stop at Kandy – the connection is made at Peradeniya). The man wanted us to come to the station “in person” to have our questions answered and to book and pay for our tickets.

So next day we set off for Kandy station (we had to lie to the parking lot attendant to get our vehicle into the station parking lot, which apparently is reserved only for those collecting large parcels).

We stood in the queue for our tickets, and when it was our turn, the man at the ticketing window told us that the Kandy station was authorised to sell a maximum of four tickets for the observation coach. No problem! We wanted just two seats. We were then told that, because of recent disputes with passengers over observation car seats, the Kandy railway office had decided to direct all ticket inquiries to Colombo.

To buy two tickets to travel from Kandy (or Peradeniya) to Bandarawela, we would have to first go to Colombo! Even a Baron Munchausen would not come up with an extraordinary story like this! This indeed was case of truth being stranger than fiction. Throwing up our hands in despair and disgust, we returned home.

We then called the Colombo Fort railway station and spoke to the person in charge of bookings. He confirmed what we had been told in Kandy. We were told that we should come to Colombo 10 days before our intended date of travel in order to purchase the tickets that would take us from Peradeniya to Bandarawela.

It so happened that my partner and I had to be in Colombo three days later on some other matter, but we would not be able to buy our tickets: these could be bought only 10 days before our planned travel date. So that meant another trip to Colombo Fort Railway Station a week later, just to buy our tickets to Bandarawela. As for the cost of the tickets, it was the same between any two points along the route. In other words, you paid from Colombo to Badulla, irrespective of where you boarded the train!

If all of the above sounds confusing, I must apologise. We could not believe our ears when we heard what the officials at the Kandy and Colombo stations told us. Talk about the old Sinhala chestnut, “Parangiya Kotte Giya”!

Clutching at one final straw, we called the Peradeniya Railway Station to ask what time the train (the Podi Menike) reached Peradeniya from Colombo and what time it was scheduled to reach Bandarawela. The stationmaster refused to answer and rudely hung up on us.

Throughout this ordeal, it must be stated that the language of conversation was English and Sinhala, depending on the language preference of the person at the other (railway) end of the line.

While Sri Lanka is, admittedly, a “developing country”, we are also proud of our progress in the era of information technology. If railway operations were computerized, the public would be spared an enormous amount of frustration and the railways might (dare I say it?) make more money.