The Railway Station Masters Association has announced that the issuance of ordinary tickets will be suspended after midnight today.
Speaking to media in Colombo today, Chairman of the Association, Sumedha Somaratne said only reservations for intercity express trains will be made from midnight today.
Somaratne said no positive response was received during the discussion held with the General Manager of Sri Lanka Railways yesterday to inform of the current issues faced by the Station Masters and several other matters.
He said the State Minister of Transport issued directives to the Railways General Manager to take immediate steps to resolve their issues during a discussion held two days ago.
He said however the General Manager did not provide alternative solutions to provide facilities to passengers or to resolve errors in the signalling systems.
Somaratne said they proposed adding trains to facilitate the large number of passengers expected to head home for Christmas over the weekend.
He said the Railway service hasn’t returned to normalcy even though the country has returned to normalcy.
He said they cannot risk the lives of the public by only adding two special trains.
Somaratne said they cannot issue ordinary tickets to the public without adequate space.
He said they will not issue tickets until a solution is provided.
Meanwhile, Station Masters reached a decision to refrain from accepting and transporting parcels from midnight yesterday, in protest of the arbitrary actions of the railway administration.
All station masters are planning to launch an indefinite strike at midnight on the 26th of December unless a proper solution is provided.
