Upcountry Railway

Sri Lanka Railways dates the arrival of rail on the island to 1864. Its purpose was commercial. Coffee grown on plantations in the hill country district of Kandy had to reach the port of Colombo for export to Europe and other markets.

The first train of the Ceylon Railway ran on 27 December 1864, from Colombo Terminus station to Ambepussa. According to Sri Lanka Railways it carried the Duke of Brabant of Belgium. Ambepussa lies a little over 56 kilometres from Colombo Fort on today's Main Line. In its early years the railway was mainly a freight service. Sri Lanka Railways notes that it now operates primarily for passengers.

The crop that justified the railway did not last. Sri Lanka Railways records that the coffee blight of 1871 devastated the plantations and that tea cultivation rose in its place. As tea planting expanded in the 1880s, company ownership replaced individual owners and production became more advanced.

This created new demands on the railway. Extensive construction followed in the Kandyan highlands. Trains carried tea down to Colombo. They also carried labour, machinery, fertiliser and food up to the plantation districts. Elsewhere the network grew to serve coconut plantations along the western and north-western coasts and rubber plantations inland. As the Port of Colombo expanded, lines were laid directly to its piers.

The climb beyond Peradeniya to Badulla is known as the Uva railway. A University of Kelaniya study by I. Munasinghe gives its length as 111 miles and its construction period as 1872 to 1924, nearly 52 years. The work spanned the terms of ten British governors, from Sir William Gregory to Sir William Manning.

The same study finds that the colonial government moved cautiously. Extensions were considered where they offered a fair prospect of covering their costs, while planters pressed continually for more track. The line uses the broad gauge of 5 feet 6 inches. At Pattipola it reaches a summit that the study gives as 6,226 feet. Sri Lanka Railways also records a branch built from Nanu Oya to Nuwara Eliya through very difficult ground.

Sri Lanka Railways explains that economic limits shaped the route through the hills. The result was steep gradients, sharp curves and winding track. Speeds in the hill country ranged from 25 to 40 kilometres an hour, against 65 to 80 in the lowlands.

The station list published by Sri Lanka Railways shows the scale of the Main Line. Measured from Colombo Fort, Kadugannawa is at 105.5 kilometres, Peradeniya at 114.9, Nanu Oya at 207.1 and Pattipola at 224.9. Bandarawela is at 259.1, Demodara at 277.7 and the terminus at Badulla at 292.4 kilometres. Colombo Fort station, where the journey begins, was built and brought into use in 1908 and now has ten platforms.

On 5 April 2024 the Ministry of Transport and Highways and the Railway Department marked the centenary of the Colombo to Badulla railway. A new train, the Dunhinda Odyssey, made its first journey from Colombo Fort to Badulla that morning. An open-air observation train, the Calypso, was dedicated to public service for the run between Nanu Oya and Badulla. The Ministry describes the line as a major attraction for local and foreign visitors.

The early history is kept at the National Railway Museum at Kadugannawa. Sri Lanka Railways opened it on 27 December 2014, 150 years to the day after the first train ran. Old locomotives, carriages, machinery and equipment are on display. Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Uva, districts this railway was built to serve, are among the seven regions the Sri Lanka Tea Board lists for Ceylon Tea today.