Train services on the Coastal Line were delayed on Friday morning after a rail track broke near Wellawatte, the Department of Railways said.
Department spokesperson Asanka Samarasinghe said the break is on the Colombo-bound line near Wellawatte and has caused delays to services on the route, NewsFirst reported at 10:27 a.m.
Repair work on the track has already begun, Samarasinghe said.
The department did not give an estimate for how long repairs would take, did not say how many services were affected, and did not state whether trains were being run on a single line while work continued.
Why it matters
The Coastal Line is one of the busiest commuter corridors in the country, carrying office traffic into Colombo Fort from the southern suburbs and the coastal belt. Wellawatte sits on the inner stretch of that route, a few kilometres south of Fort, so a fault there affects services along the length of the line rather than a single section.
The incident is unrelated to the department’s ongoing Coastal Line rehabilitation programme, under which 10,000 rails were imported in August for track replacement. This is a single track failure, not planned works.
Samarasinghe is the same spokesperson who confirmed this week that upcountry services between Peradeniya and Gampola had resumed after a ten-month closure.
Passengers on the Coastal Line should allow extra time until the department confirms repairs are complete.
