Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Leading Sri Lankan internet service providers have planned to establish 89 Wi-Fi zones at 53 railway stations across the country, the Policy Development Office of the Prime Minister’s Office said.

One company will facilitate 55 percent of the total number of Wi-Fi zones. Accordingly, 49 Wi-Fi zones will be established by this company while other internet service providers are set to facilitate the rest of the 40 Wi-Fi zones.

Forty-four of these Wi-Fi zones will be located within the Western Province and 22 of them will centralize 14 railway stations in the Colombo district.

In Sabaragamuwa Province, Rambukkana Railway Station is to be facilitated by this project. 

Meanwhile, 3 railway stations in Kandy district, 5 in North-western Province and 5 railway stations from Badulla district are also to be facilitated.

The regulatory and follow-up activities regarding this project are maintained by the Policy Development Office.

We have train stations built by British where most of them were never modified or improvised for the last 70 years 

We have a horrible  train service which is running overcrowded 

Railway lines are not modified to take high speed trains When you travel in an Intercity or an express train you feel how shaky the compartments are. We are talking about efficient train service and monorails for the last many years  as s solution to traffic snarls.

We are at the mercy of private bus drivers who behave like devils 

We need to privatize railway station management and let private sector invest and develop the facilities 

They can attract passengers to use more friendlier train service 

I was traveling from Brighton to London that they and observed how efficient the train service is and how well stations are managed

If the trains run on time and you do not  waste your time siting in the  station waiting for a train , why the hell you need WIFI??

This country needs to ponder into more more burning issues than

WIFI

After all Train Service is the main blood vein of the development of the country 

Quote from trip advisor

Sri Lanka Train Overcrowding

Dan L · 1 forum post

Washington DC, District of…

Dec 27, 2018, 9:54 AM

Not a question, but advice: 

During high season travels, I need to advise that tourists should not plan on taking the Sri Lankan trains due to overcrowding. As is commonly known, there is no limit to the number of tickets sold per train. I attempted to travel Colombo – Galle on 12/22/18, and several people were unable to board the train. (I think at least 50 people, but I didn’t take an exact count.) The train was late arriving Colombo Fort due to the overcrowding at the origin station, and even further delayed because of the crowding at Colombo Fort. Four of us ended up splitting an Uber from Colombo Fort to Galle, at a cost of 8200 LKR.

Today (12/27) I took the train from Ella to Haputale for a day trip. While I was able to board the train, the train was *packed*. it was elbow to elbow and overcrowded. My original plan was to take the train from Ella to Kandy tomorrow, but there is no way i’m traveling 6+ hours standing in those conditions… with all of my belongings. As for missing out on what is possibly the most scenic view in the world, as I am 185 cm in height, I cannot see out the window in a crowded train. 

Anyway, the point of this post is to caution tourists traveling during high season that the train may no longer be the go-to form of transport that it once was.

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Sarath obeysekera