Daily train services on the Northern Railway Line have fallen from 18 to eight since Cyclone Ditwah, the Sri Lanka Railway Station Masters’ Association says, leaving passengers on the Colombo–Jaffna corridor with sharply reduced options.
Association secretary Kasun Chamara Jayasekara told the Daily Mirror that the reduction has significantly limited travel choices, and that Wednesdays are the worst affected — only a limited number of services run that day, including the Intercity Express and the Night Mail. The Yal Devi Express is operating only on alternate days.
The upcountry network is more heavily curtailed. Jayasekara said services on routes linking Colombo Fort with Badulla, Matale, Kandy and Hatton have been severely reduced, with only eight of 42 daily passenger and freight services currently running. The remaining 34 are suspended.
He said the association has repeatedly asked the authorities to restore normal operations on the Up Country Line since services to Gampola resumed last month, but has not yet had a favourable response.
The scale of the shortfall is a reminder of how long the railway’s recovery is taking. Cyclone Ditwah struck Sri Lanka in November 2025, killing 646 people, and inflicted heavy damage on the rail network. Almost eleven months later, by the station masters’ account, the Northern Line is running at under half its pre-cyclone timetable and the upcountry routes at under a fifth.
Ada Derana also reported the reduction on Saturday, but the site has been returning a CloudFront block for three weeks and its report could not be independently retrieved, so it is not cited here.
Not reported: the Daily Mirror’s account does not include a response from Sri Lanka Railways or the Ministry of Transport, does not say which sections of track remain unrepaired, and gives no timetable for restoring the suspended services.
