Railway revises timetable

by Ananda Kannangara

The Railways Department will revise the timetable from today (October 15) in order to resolve the transport problem of private sector office workers.

Accordingly the new timetable will come into operation from tomorrow (Monday).

In addition to the short distance office trains, the timetables of long distance trains including the intercity express from Colombo to Kandy and Vavuniya and the night mail from Colombo to Badulla will also be changed. General Manager, Railways K. A. Premasiri told the `Sunday Observer’ that although it was a slight change, the public sector workers whose office time generally ends between 4.15 p.m. and 4.45 p.m. will be greatly benefitted with this revised timetables.

“This is the second time in four months, we adjusted the time tables and the first adjustment was done on June 19 in par with the new working hours, announced by the Ministry of Public Administration after advancing the local time half an hour,” he said.

Premasiri further said that changing the railway timetable at this juncture was a temporary measure, since the Department has already made arrangements to import 100 carriages and 15 engines to meet with the current requirement.

“We are expecting to deploy these trains during the early part of next year,” he said.

Asked whether the new timetable will not affect schoolchildren the General Manager said that trains already deployed to run after 1.30 p.m. for the benefit of schoolchildren will not be changed.