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| Tourism in Srilanka » Tourism in Jaffna » Transportation in Jaffna » Railways in Jaffna
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Railways in Jaffna
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Transport service in Sri Lanka is of great help for both the tourists in Jaffna and the local residents. The road network in Sri Lanka is situated in the capital of Sri Lanka, Colombo. There a great railway network as well to serve the Jaffna people. Waterways take a major part in the transport system in Jaffna. The railway network in Jaffna is still developing. But it is efficient enough to serve the local residents and the tourists to Jaffna. Railways in Jaffna has made the transportation system inside the country quite easy going.
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The country’s railway network in Jaffna is operated by Sri Lanka Government Railway that consists of around 1,450 km of railway track. Colombo is the node point of the railway network in Sri Lanka. The train route in Sri Lanka connects the major cities of the nine provinces in Sri Lanka.
The main railways were developed during the period of British colonial rule. Railways started plying on the line from Colombo to Kandy for the first time on 26 April 1867. The British introduced the railway service mainly because they understood that it would be a cheap means of transportation. The goods produced in the British-owned Sri Lanka, viz. rubber, tea and coconut were transported from the main port in Colombo.
As Sri Lanka got independent from Britain, the Sri Lankan economy started focusing more on industries rather than agriculture. Gradually, the road network in Jaffna and the other cities in Sri Lanka grew. With the introduction of lorries that were a faster means of transportation, specially for goods. Gradually the amount of goods transported by the railways decreased. The railway network was mainly initiated for transportation of plantation and not for public transport. That is why railways in Jaffna became an organization running in loss. But later on, the enterprise strived to revive and succeeded to a great extent. Today railways in Jaffna are a major means of transport in Jaffna.
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