Thousands of rail commuters were left stranded in their villages as locomotive drivers and their assistants went overboard in celebrating the Sinhala and Tamil New Year and failed to be at their posts as transport became another nightmare for Sri Lankans to return to their Colombo and suburban residences after the vacation.
Several returnees said getting back was even worse than the trauma they underwent to go to their villages to celebrate the auspices New Year last week.
“The way things are the next time we will have to bring our own trains from home and we are always wrong then we talk about our problems,” said one disgruntled train commuter.
More than 10 trains covering important and diverse regions of the country were left in Colombo’s main yard driver-less that caused much of the chaos.
The Railway Department which has never been able to provide a reliable service to commuters since the British handed over the system in the country’s Independence transition in 1948 has become the most despised and condemned transport provider in the country.
But railway authorities passed the buck saying they had not expected an unprecedented demand this year although acknowledging that the absence of locomotive drivers had aggravated the crisis.
“We had to cancel some trains that had no drivers and assistants who took leave for the New Year but did not turn up on time. But I don’t think their absence posed a major problem. We operated all the long distance trains from Kandy, Badulla and Bandarawela”, said NJ Indipolage the Deputy General Manager of Sri Lanka Railways.
But his explanation for the unprecedented fury was not enough to appease stranded passengers.
“I have been waiting for a train for the past two hours. The government is very good at promises that are only confined to words,” said another train commuter.
