The Metro bus service has run its first route trial in Jaffna, the clearest sign yet that the state-backed luxury bus network is moving beyond the Western Province.
A preliminary route test run for launching the Metro bus service within Jaffna district was conducted on Tuesday, Hiru News reported at 5.52 p.m. on Wednesday.
Deputy Minister of Transport and Highways Dr. Prasanna Gunasena took part. The trial focused on identifying roads suitable for Metro buses, fixing bus stop locations, and assessing the technical facilities and private vehicle parking that would be required.
The stated aim is to modernise public transport and give passengers a safer, more comfortable and more efficient service.
From 10 buses to 122
The filing sets out the service’s growth. Metro began early in 2026 as a pilot project with 10 buses. It now runs 122 buses on seven routes, covering three districts of the Western Province.
That matches this desk’s own record: 122 buses were launched on seven routes at the end of September, across the Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara districts.
Kandy and Jaffna have been selected as the next step in taking the service outside Colombo, with expansion to Galle district planned later.
The timetable this tests
Jaffna has been named as a destination since August without a service appearing. Transport Minister Bimal Ratnayake said on 1 August that the service would reach Kandy and Jaffna before the end of this year: “We hope to launch the Metro bus service in Jaffna and Kandy by the end of this year. Metro depots will also be established in both districts.”
The Kandy leg has moved first. A route survey for a Kandy Metro service began in mid-October, also led by Deputy Minister Gunasena.
Tuesday’s run is the Jaffna equivalent of that survey — a route assessment rather than a service launch. With seven weeks of the year remaining, nothing in Wednesday’s filing says whether the minister’s year-end commitment still stands.
Not reported
The filing does not say when the Jaffna service would begin, how many buses it would use, what routes were tested, or which roads were found suitable. It gives no fares, no frequencies and no depot site, although a Jaffna depot was part of the August commitment.
It does not say whether the Jaffna service would run within the district only or connect to Colombo, who would operate it, or what the trial cost. Nothing states whether the buses used on Tuesday were brought from the Western Province fleet or are additional, and the filing does not address the 50 additional low-floor buses approved by Cabinet in August.
No official other than the deputy minister is named, and he is not quoted directly.
A note on sourcing. This article rests on a single newsroom’s filing. Searches of the Daily Mirror, NewsFirst, the Island, the Daily FT, the Daily News, news.lk and EconomyNext found no independent account of Tuesday’s Jaffna trial run at the time of writing; those outlets’ Metro coverage concerns the Western Province fleet, the Kandy survey and the Kadawatha depot.
