A further 100 assistant train drivers have been recruited into the railway service, with appointment letters awarded on Monday, NewsFirst reported.
The Ministry of Transport said the appointments fall under a national programme to develop the Railway Department’s human and physical resources and deliver what it described as a quality service to the public.
The scale of this year’s hiring
The more significant figure is the cumulative one. The Ministry said nearly 1,500 personnel have been recruited into various positions across the Railway Department within this year alone — a substantial intake for a department whose staffing levels have been a recurring subject of dispute with its unions.
The Ministry added that the Railway Department plans to conduct competitive examination–based recruitments in 2027 to fill remaining vacancies, including Station Masters, Train Guards and Technical Officers.
The context the report does not supply
The appointments land days before a scheduled industrial action. Railway unions have said they will proceed with a 48-hour strike on September 17 and 18, and the Daily Mirror reported on Monday that they are maintaining that position.
NewsFirst does not connect the two, and there is no indication in its report that the recruitment is a response to the strike. But staffing and the resulting overtime burden have featured in earlier railway disputes, including union complaints over locomotive failures in August.
Not reported
NewsFirst does not say where the appointment letters were awarded or by whom, how long the 100 recruits have been in training, or when they will begin driving duties — assistant drivers ordinarily require a substantial supervised period before qualifying.
It gives no breakdown of the nearly 1,500 recruits by grade, does not say how many vacancies remain across the department, and does not quantify the shortfall in driver grades specifically. No date is given for the 2027 competitive examinations, and no cost figure is attached to the recruitment programme. Neither the Railway Department nor any union is quoted.
Single-source note. No other verified newsroom had filed on this announcement at the time of writing. The Daily Mirror’s latest-news listing had not advanced past Monday evening, and Ada Derana’s site remains unreachable.
