The Sri Lanka Railway Station Masters’ Association says the Department of Railways continues to ignore the concerns raised in order to resolve existing issues.
Speaking during a media briefing the Chairman of the Association Sumedha Somaratne said the Railways Department’s reputation has been tarnished internationally due to such actions.
Somaratne said the Railway Administration had last night cancelled the Colombo-Badulla night mail train after tourists had already paid for and reserved seats and instead provided a special service express train and thereby filling two trains worth of passengers in one train.
He said the luxury train service between the Mount Lavinia station and the Kankesanthurai station launched less than a month ago, was delayed by 45 minutes due to the non availability of superintendents and had commenced the journey from Colombo Fort instead.
He charged the Railway Department of inconveniencing both the local and foreign passengers.
Furthermore, the Chairman of the Association said the Department of Posts has also suffered a loss due to the cancellation of the Badulla mail train which was scheduled to run last night.
He said the Postal compartment could not be attached to the alternative express train which was in operation instead.
Somaratne said the Railways Department also suffered losses due to this.
He said the Postal Department was forced to seek alternative methods due to the actions of the Railway Administration.
