Editorial The Sunday Future Islands The return of the Yal Devi October 18, 2014, 5:10 pm The Yal Devi’s return to Jaffna last week predictably evoked a lot of sentiment reflected in three articles we publish today. Regular columnist Rajan Philips writing in this page says he had for long taken for granted that the Yal Devi was inaugurated somewhere in the 1960s but has now found that it made its maiden run a few days after the SWRD Bandaranaike electoral landslide of 1956. But unlike during the return of the Yal Devi there was no president, prime minister or retinue on board then. That was during a time new public servants received their letters of appointment by mail with instructions of when, where and to whom they should report for duty. There were no tamashas as now with politicians doing the honours implying to all intents and purposes that the jobs were being conferred by their grace and favour! Most events involving public expenditure were less politicized in an earlier era although politicians even then sought what mileage they could personally extract from publicly funded projects. Be that as it may, the three trains, the iconic Ruhunu Kumari, Yal Devi and Udarata Menike connecting different regions of the island through the Ceylon Government Railway (CGR) of yesteryear certainly caught the national imagination. Older readers will remember that in the days the CGR was headed by General Managers of the caliber of the legendary B.D. Rampala, it provided services far superior to what is now on offer. A colourful personality, he steered the railway with an iron hand. The British built the railway largely to serve the interests of the tea and rubber plantations and some of the upcountry lines, such as the famed Demodara loop together with some railway bridges and tunnels, are engineering marvels. The trains served the plantation industry well, transporting their produce for shipment from Colombo and sometimes Trincomalee. The Galle harbour too was of use in this regard. There are many who will insist that a train ride to Kandy is far more picturesque than the road. Time was when the railway had a slogan, `Beautiful Ceylon, See It by Train’ and the claims were not exaggerated. The Yal Devi particularly was a vital physical link between the peninsula where his home and family was and his place of work to the Jaffna man. There were tens of thousands of Jaffna people employed in the public sector and elsewhere working outside the north so that it was said that public servants were Jaffna’s main export! Although a fairly good road link, including luxury bus services, were provided before the Yal Devi returned to Jaffna after the war, there is no doubt that that the resumption of the service destroyed as a result of the long conflict will be warmly and widely welcomed. With a presidential election predicted in January, no wonder then that President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s publicists did their best to extract maximum political mileage for their boss from this event. Post Independence, we unfortunately did not develop the railway as well as we might have. Today’s traffic jams particularly in Colombo and Kandy where motorists literally have to crawl is a price of that. The public transport system, both road and rail, is abysmal and commuters aspire to at least a motorbike to escape the misery. That adds to the traffic. If we had a good fast train service radiating out of Colombo to the bigger towns nearby like Gampaha, Panadura - Kalutara and Negombo, far fewer people would have used the road. Many would have also been persuaded not to use their own vehicles to get to work and choose the cheaper option of public transport easing traffic conditions. The pressure for building land in the city and suburbs too would have surely been less. But this was not to be although there is now talk of a monorail serving Colombo city and its outskirts. This will certainly come to pass although the planners have prioritized the building of expressways over developing the railway. In the old days the railway had a culture of its own vividly portrayed by novelist Carl Muller through his `faction’ Yakada Yaka. The son of an engine driver, the author is familiar with the many characters in the CGR and railway lore which he used to maximum effect in some of his rib tickling novels. The railway had a corps of skilled workmen and its Ratmalana workshop was a center of excellence once upon a time. Such assets, unfortunately, have been permitted to wither. Today we see large extents of invaluable railway reservation land appropriated for purposes that have nothing to do with the railway. Massive investment will be essential if we are to develop a fast, modern and reliable train service. But priority must be given to ensuring minimal standards in the existing system which has deteriorated in recent years. Charging economic fares rather than continuing with subsidized season tickets is also a necessity. Since the northern line has the potential of once again becoming the railway’s top revenue earner, resumption of the Yal Devi service will be an opportunity of making it exemplary and self-financing at least as far as recurrent costs are concerned. island.lk/index.php?page_cat=news-section&page=news-section&code_title=69
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 04:02:33 +0000
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