Start the trains

Fr. Alfred Alexander in his letter to the Sunday Times of November 5 says the A 9 was the one and only link between the north and the south before the war broke out, but trains travelled from Colombo to Jaffna and Kankesanthurai (KKS). I have travelled many times to KKS without using the A 9 road. I didn’t fly either. I used the train.

Train travel was popular among poor and middle class people. Even parliamentarians and high government servants used the train. The LTTE destroyed the rail track beyond Vavuniya at the insistence of private bus operators. Both parties benefited by that action.

Why not insist on re-starting the railway line? That will benefit the vast majority of people. Our railway workers can do it in four months. They have already restored the southern coast-line after the tsunami disaster. They did it in less than 90 days.

The LTTE can’t collect ransoms or kidnap people in crowded trains.

By S.Wijesekera, Telijjawila