The Sri Lanka Railways Station Masters' Union (SLRSMU) has decided to refrain from transporting and accepting parcels and issuing tickets from 12.00 midnight today to avoid serious problems faced by station masters.

While sending a letter to the Transport Minister, SLRSMU Chief Secretary said although parcels are currently accepted for transportation, the goods wagons required to transport parcels to destinations are not properly arranged.

The night mail trains, which play a major role in postal and parcel transportation, are not involved in the operation of long distance express trains. Therefore, the whole goods transportation system has collapsed, they said.

Even with the current crisis in the health and economic situation of the country, the Station Masters have been severely inconvenienced due to the department's failure to provide proper service to the customers by complying with the Department's Commercial Regulations on the proper transportation of perishable, non - perishable and other goods.

"Several requests were made to the Transport Minister, the State Minister and the Railways General Manager (GMR) to resolve our issues. However, no positive response was given during today's discussion, the union said.

 Considering the above facts, delays in the delivery of essential parcels to customers by the railways during the festive season and the inconvenience to commuters are inevitable.

Therefore, the SLRSMU has decided to refrain from parcel transport, accepting and issuing tickets from tonight.

SLRSMU said that they will be reluctant to issue tickets for regular trains except for the trains that only transport seated passengers for which seats will be reserved from midight tomorrow.

"We strongly believe that the management of the Railways Department will be responsible for the revenue loss through these trade union actions and that all Station Masters will be informed from 12.00 noon on Sunday (26) if any issues affecting our members and the public are not properly addressed. 

We reiterate our call for a continuous island-wide  strike to end all services.

The administration of the Railway Department is fully responsible for the inconvenience caused to the Government and the public due to this, the Union said. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)