The Department of Railways has incurred losses exceeding Rs. 1 million from disrupted season ticket sales for April and May, the Sri Lanka Railway Station Masters’ Union said, blaming an internal overtime-related dispute for delays in issuing the concessionary tickets to government employees.
Union Secretary Kasun Chamara Jayasekara said season tickets — issued to public sector workers at concessionary rates — were not distributed on time during the two-month period, causing operational difficulties and a clear revenue loss. He said the validity of April season tickets was extended several times by the Railway Department, allowing existing holders to keep using them well into May.
The knock-on effect: many public servants did not buy new tickets for May, and a number of tickets that had been issued were later cancelled. Combined, the slip in ticket sales and the cancellations produced losses of more than Rs. 1 million for the department, Jayasekara said.
The disclosure underscores how unresolved industrial disputes inside a state operator can quickly translate into hard revenue losses, even on a programme as routine as monthly commuter passes. The Department of Railways has been under sustained scrutiny over service reliability and modernisation in recent months, with separate work running on a Rs. 2.1 billion Fort station upgrade backed by the ADB and a revival of the electric railway plan for the Colombo suburbs targeted at 2027.
Source: Ada Derana.
