Railway dept. faces difficulties in issuing tickets

Station masters and visiting station masters are facing difficulties when issuing train tickets as the stock of printed train ticket at the main and sub railway stations are fast running out.

In response to a letter from the Railway Department's Accountant in Maradana yesterday, the Sri Lanka Railway Station Masters' Union (SLRSMU) said there is a delay in receiving train tickets to meet the demand.

The demand for trains has increased in countries such as India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. People in those countries used to travel on the roofs and locomotives, they said.

The SLRSMU said a large number of train tickets were issued as the people preferred to travel by train, after the recent COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in bus fare.

Therefore, large number of train tickets have been issued. We do not see the department's administration is showing any keenness to address this shortcoming. Even printing of such tickets by the government printers has stopped and printing machines solely to print train tickets should be installed at the railway headquarters, the union said.

The attention of the department has been drawn on this, and if no immediate attention is paid, issues may arise due to the rapid exhaustion of tickets at stations such as Fort Maradana, Gampaha, Veyangoda, Ragama, etc., as well as at many sub-stations.

The material which is used to print the regular tickets is imported from abroad, the railway department may have to spend heavily on printing and material in the future. There is a possibility of reducing the cost to a certain extent, if the system accepts re-using the used tickets as it was previously.

We also draw the attention of the relevant authorities to expedite the implementation of the electronic ticketing system to be introduced in the year 2023, the SLRSMU added. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)