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Railways criticised for sleeping on the job of upgrading sleeping berths
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Railways General Manager, Dammika Jayasundara
By Kasun Warakapitiya
Naysayers and officials with old ideas have thwarted plans to develop Sri Lanka Railways to earn revenue by specialising in tourism.
The railways, which has a rich history of 160 years, provided services including sleeping berths from the colonial times, on long distance trains.
In colonial times, there were first and second and class sleeping berths. The VIP or the first class birth had attached bathrooms per cabin, while the second class berths had common washrooms. First class berths were used by state officers, the upper class, and high ranking military officers.
At that time, there were berths in night mail trains operating to Jaffna, Batticaloa, Badulla, and Trincomalee. Now, only the Batticaloa train operates with a carriage of 14 berths.
The Colombo-Badulla train carriage which had first class and second class berths with 12 berth cabins was replaced with 34 sleeperettes.
However, there have been complaints that the designs are outdated and do not meet the requirements of current day first class passengers.
A senior railway operations officer, who declined to be named, told the Sunday Times that the sleeping berth carriage of the Badulla night mail train was replaced on the grounds that the 12 berths limitted the number of passengers when the sleeperettes could carry 32 passengers.
Before the sleeperettes were introduced the state of the sleeping berth carriage was far from first calss despite being categorised as such. The wagon which is over 45 years old had two beds per cabin. The bed on the top could only be accessed by ladder, a hindrance to the elderly.
Former railway general managers and senior officials said that although they had the will to upgrade the berth carriages to suit foreign tourists, officials did not support it, pointing out lack of revenue, high cost of running trains upcountry and time and efforts on revamping.
They believe expenditure for running the train and revamping carriages could be covered by upgrading facilities and attracting high-spending foreigners.
Officials should think out of the box to generate revenue by getting a tourist company to maintain carriages, while railways operates the trains, they said.
A senior official of the railways who claimed anonymity admitted that fuel expenditure is greater and that the upcountry trains’ pulling capacity is inadequate. The railways has to use shorter carriages on the hilly track. So, replacing the berth by adding a sleeperette is also practical for passenger trains.
The state of a sleeping berth before the sleeprettes were introduced
He said berth wagons could still be used in special long distance trains equipped with five star hotel room facilities targeting foreign tourist revenue. Authorities do not need to wait until carriages are condemned to be replaced, but should update facilities and run the trains.
Locomotive Operating Engineers Union (LOEU) president K.A.U Konthasinghe said that the government should take strong policy decisions backed by a practical master plan to gain revenue by promoting tourism, and facilitating oil and cargo transport.
He said that passenger transport alone would not be enough to make revenue.
Mr Konthasinghe said that the railways needs expert knowledge and forward planning to estimate demand for the next 10 years but that is not happening.
Railways General Manager, Dammika Jayasundara told the Sunday Times said the berths were replaced by second class sleeperettes to cater to more passenger demand on the upcountry line. He admits that the hauling power is low and the number of carriages have to be limited.
There is also a plan to introduce modified berths which could cater to foreign tourists in a special multi-day tourist train, which could make several day trips from tourist areas such as Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Galle, Nanu Oya, and Ella.
| Hotels’ being fashioned from discarded carriages  G.A. Krisantha
Sri Lanka Railways is turning discarded railway carriages into hotel rooms, or ‘Train Villas’, to be placed in areas that attract tourists. Two decommissioned carriages had been redesigned as hotel rooms at the Ratmalana Railway workshop. They have two king side beds, attached bathrooms with hot water, a dressing table, a settee, and an area to have meals. Railways General Manager Dammika Jayasundara said the rooms are expected to be available in April. The Superintendent Engineer of Project and Development, G.A Krisantha, who was also involved in redesigning the carriages, told the Sunday Times that the project was proposed by former Nanu Oya chief station master Janaka Weerasinghe in 2021 to the then-general manager who is also the current general manager. Mr Krisantha was named head of a five member committee for the project. “We initially planned to set up the railway hotel room carriages beside the railway running shed next to the pathway near the railway retiring rooms at Nanu Oya, however, now we have planned to set up the carriages at Ella,’’ he said. The train hotel will be set up with a WI locomotive, two hotel room carriages and guard room carriage, which will have a kitchen, a washing area and a place for service providers to stay. The guard room carriage is under construction. Mr Weerasinghe, who is now the Homagama station master, said the idea came after seeing abandoned carriages near the running shed. The architectural drawing for the project was done by G.G Damma Geethanjana. | |
  A hotel room on wheels. Pix by Eshan Fernando |
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