WOMAN CLINGS TO TRAIN FOR THREE km

Passengers say train stops only a few seconds at stations

A woman who was stepping on to the Colombo bound night mail train at the Kodikamam station had been hanging onto the door railing for three kilometres until the train stopped, sources said.

Many passengers who travel between Jaffna and Colombo complained that it had become very inconvenient, and dangerous for them to travel in the night mail train due to very short time allowed at stations.

They also said to have observed weakness in stopping the train at times of emergencies.

“Recently a woman who attempted to get on had to cling on to a door of the rear compartment of the train in as the train had begun to move after stopping for about 30 seconds at the Kodikamam station.

“Her screaming had not been heard by anyone as it was a berth compartment with all the doors closed, until a passenger in another compartment had pulled the emergency stop chain seeing the women clinging to the door. But the emergency system had failed.

“But since he had noticed that alarms were not working he had alerted the security officer of the berth compartment about the dangerous situation. However, when the train stopped it had passed more than three kilometers with the women clinging on to the door until she was rescued,” the source said.

They requested the Railways Department to look into these shortcomings and to provide them with a better service.