In the 19th century, railways led the economic development throughout the world, carrying commuters to cities that were to become industrial and commercial centres and goods from far flung provinces to develop export crops and resource exploration. The expansion of tea cultivation and the formation of Colombo as a metropolis were its noteworthy contributions to Sri Lanka. However, just as the train ended the dominance of water transport, the popularity of motorized road transport since World War II has sidelined railways the world over. In fact in Sri Lanka the railways is down to carry just 2% of freight and 5% of passenger traffic. So sadly, the train in Sri Lanka is on the list of endangered species.
 The reason for this is that the railway is no longer attractive to the majority of the people. The crowded trains one sees around Colombo are filled mostly with government workers who pay just 15 % of the fare. The fare itself is around 40-50% of what it actually costs the railway. These commuters are therefore captive as they only pay 7-8% of the actual cost. There are more trade unions than there are working train engines, each quite unconcerned about disrupting services for better working conditions, while the organization itself remains unable to modernize or improve its management to meet public applause. The lack of a coherent strategic plan to reform even in the future, seals its fate. Thus the possibility of the last train from Lanka, like the last tram and the last trolley bus in decades before, could be a sad reality.
The story of Kandy once a city relying much on the railways is a case in point. Kandy at present attracts 360,000 people daily, of which only 1% arrives by train. This is in spite of the rail line stretching from Peradeniya to Katugastota, a distance of 10 km right through the only urban corridor in Kandy. Large numbers of buses, school vans, three wheelers and private vehicles make an otherwise idyllic city noisy, dusty and over-crowded thus threatening this World Heritage City’s requirement for visitors who come for peace, tranquility and an ambience for reverence. However Kandy has a dualistic role to play as the provincial capital, in providing access to jobs, schools, services and businesses for its local populace. Hence the need to transport large numbers of people daily.
The topography of the city, that is nestled between the river and the mountains, makes the railway an alternative to the ever increasing road transport and congestion. But it needs to introduce modern technology, provide quality and reliable service that can attract van and car passengers. It needs to make the stations hospitable, build safe and easy access paths to the hospital, the bus terminals, the kachcheri, the market and the many major schools that are all within walking distance from the rail line. It needs to introduce IT based customer services and ticketing. But will the railways be willing and indeed be allowed and encouraged to take up this challenge? Will it be able to break free of the comfort of treasury support, political and administrative shackles and be allowed to re-modernize and become commercialized? However, my most shocking discovery in Kandy was to learn the proposal that a key administrator was pushing, to close down the track between Kandy and Katugastota so that it could be used to build a road! What insanity in high places!
This is just one of many opportunities that the railway has for making itself useful to Sri Lankans. Similarly it has scope in the carriage of containers, in serving tourists and in electrifying the suburban services in Colombo. These are projects that have been mooted for decades but repeatedly ignored by political indifference and lackluster leadership. Importing engines and carriages on regular basis and carrying out expensive track rehabilitations is essential for preserving an institution. But such alone is not adequate for the type of turnaround that the railway requires in Sri Lanka. What the people need from the railways is a clear resurgence of service quality that will restore the confidence in the railway that would increase its use so that the people are assured that the railway exists to support the people and not vice-versa!
However the railways face many problems. They require large investments; and they are often unionized and bureaucratic. The Prime Minister of India has recently issued intent to have the famed Indian Railways reformed. The Economic Times of India reporting on this last month says, ‘It is time the political class stopped viewing the Railways as a plum platform for patronage disbursal and see the Railways for what they are: a vital, but failing component of India's transport infrastructure that has the capacity to make or break the nation's competitiveness. Moving imported coal to inland power plants, imported components to factories just-in-time, finished goods from factory to port and people across the length and breadth of this vast sub-continent , all with speed, safety and predictability — that is the transport challenge in which the Railways play a small and diminishing role’.
Such railway revival has come true in Japan, Europe, in Argentina and more recently even in North America that had virtually abandoned interest in the railways. They all required a specific process to succeed. They require that all strategies and plans are customer centred. That they must translate to more business and better good will. Scientifically proven solutions to identified problems are needed. They must be sustainable, meaning they must be based on business models that will survive changes of officials, politicians and governments.
It is factually correct to say that we do none of these in Sri Lanka. In fact it is a truism that in the transport sector, whatever is properly planned is never implemented while whatever implemented is not planned adequately! An example is, the airport express which being an excellent concept was not subject to a planning process to make it successful. Most such endeavours are hurried to achieve short-term political targets than to ensure sustainable business development or service to the people.
While the government continues to invest around 8 to 10 billion rupees annually in railway infrastructure and subsidies, what hope do we have that this will translate to better services to the public? Unless political interference, appointees to non value adding posts, abhorrence to planning processes and impatience with policy led reform change forthwith, and its pre occupation becomes service development, these investments would have little or no return- at least to the public. The railways need reform, a clear vision and leadership to translate it to becoming a public utility from being perceived as a public liability. To convert it from being managed on 19th century techniques to the modern, from living off taxes from non-users to earning its own living by providing a service to its users. If not it may not be long before someone blows the whistle for the last train to leave the platform.
Next article: What the next Mayor of Colombo should know about the travails of travel!
(The writer is Senior Professor at the Department of Transport & Logistics Management at the University of Moratuwa and Sri Lanka's foremost traffic management expert. He can be reached at prof.kumarage@gmail.com) |
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