Train services between Rambukkana, Peradeniya and Gampola will be suspended on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October while the Railway Department carries out emergency repairs at Kadigamuwa, where earth has repeatedly come down onto the Upcountry Line.

Superintendent of Railways (Traffic) G.D.A. Samarasinghe said the landslide, triggered by adverse weather, has washed soil onto the line between Rambukkana and Peradeniya and created a safety risk to train operations, the Daily Mirror reported at 4.28 p.m.

Emergency repair work is scheduled for both days to clear the affected area and return the track to a safe condition. All services on the affected sections will remain suspended for the duration.

Hiru News reported the same decision in Sinhala five minutes later, attributing it to the Railway Department and describing an earth mound near Kadigamuwa Railway Station coming down onto the track. The photograph published with Hiru’s report shows the rails buried under a mud flow rather than merely dusted with soil, with the cut slope above them sheared open.

Refunds

Passengers who bought reserved seats at railway stations for travel on 24 or 25 October are entitled to a full refund of the amount paid, the department said. It apologised for the disruption and asked the public to take the suspension into account when planning journeys.

Neither filing says whether unreserved fares are refundable, nor whether replacement bus transport will be provided.

Why this one is different

This desk has tracked six earth failures at Kadigamuwa in 17 days, on a stretch of track reopened on 2 October after ten months severed by Cyclone Ditwah. Repairs then covered 103 damaged locations between Rambukkana and Gampola at a cost of around Rs. 1 billion.

Every previous incident produced delays or trains short-terminated at Rambukkana. This is the first time the department has taken the line out of service and scheduled repair work instead.

That shift matters more than any single slip. A railway that keeps running trains through a failing slope is treating each collapse as weather; one that closes the line for two days is treating the slope itself as the problem.

Today’s filings also do something six previous ones did not: they name a railway official. This desk recorded after the fourth and sixth failures that no filing had named anyone at the Railway Department or carried a statement from the Ministry of Transport. Samarasinghe’s statement closes the first half of that gap.

Not reported

Neither filing says a fresh slip occurred on Friday — both describe the accumulated condition of the line — so this report does not add to the failure count.

Neither says what the repair work consists of, whether it addresses the slope or only clears the deposit, or whether services will in fact resume on Monday. Neither reports whether the National Building Research Organisation has now been asked to reassess the hillside — the question left open since the Sri Lanka Railway Station Masters’ Association alleged in early October that services resumed without NBRO clearance.

No filing reports an injury.

Sources: Train services between Rambukkana, Peradeniya and Gampola suspended — Daily Mirror, October 23, Hiru News, October 23 (Sinhala).