Railway marred by frequent delays

Shirley WIJESINGHE

Thousands of commuters travelling in the Puttalam Colombo office train are seriously inconvenienced by the frequent delays experience in the morning and evening for nearly three months.

Commuters say they had to come late to their places of work often being penalized for late attendance and loss of working hours.

When asked to comment a senior Railways Official said it will take sometime to avoid frequent delays in the Puttalam, Colombo( Bangadeniya) office train.

He pointed out that certain financial constrains and the recent work to rule campaign staged by certain category of employees had effected the scheduled time of office trains.

A clear bottle neck had been identified from Ragama to Colombo Fort especially during the peak hours of morning and evening.

The newly constructed third railway track is also yet to become fully operational for running to avoid such bottle neck delays, he explained.

He said that the new engine drivers in the Puttalam line are strictly adhering to speed limits and took more time to transport office workers to Colombo.

He said the speed limits can be removed only after rehabilitating the railway track beyond Chilaw.

Certain employees had purposely damaged railway power engines during their work to rule campaign, he alleged.

He said there was no possibility of moving the time of starting the train to an earlier time from Puttalam, as it is not fair to make commuters from long distances to wake up early in the morning to catch the train," he said.