{"id":546979,"date":"2023-02-10T19:46:09","date_gmt":"2023-02-10T09:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slrailwayforum.com\/rail-buses-in-sri-lanka\/"},"modified":"2023-02-10T19:46:09","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T09:46:09","slug":"story-of-rail-buses-in-sri-lanka-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=546979","title":{"rendered":"Story of Rail Buses in Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a much more profitable and convenient substitute to using trains to meet the transportation facilities between major cities in areas with low passenger necessities, the Sri Lankan rail bus service started around 1995 using two TATA Dimo \u200b\u200bbuses. Later in the day, Lanka Ashok Leyland buses (6000cc and 160hp) started being mostly used for this service.<\/p>\n

These rail buses used to transport a low level of passengers have been created by connecting two buses used for traffic on normal roads and making some changes in their body, gear system, and engines, and installing the wheels used for trains instead of the wheels that originally came with them. These were used to run these railbuses on the Kalanivalley route, Mannar route, Eastern route, Northern route, and between Peradeniya – Kandy.<\/p>\n

The rail buses used in this way could be seen running with two or three passengers as well as without passengers, serving their purpose despite the number of passengers requiring its service. <\/p>\n

Locally developed rail buses were tested by SLR. One set is made out of two road passenger motor buses connected to run from both ends like a DMU. Amazingly this was seen at Pattipola, the highest rail station in the country ( 6000 feet Above Mean Sea Level) on an excursion tour a few years ago. Few units are deployed in remote demand routes but not on the hill country line due to low power generation on engines. The picture was taken in the year 2000 summer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Locally developed rail buses were tested by SLR. One set is made out of two road passenger motor buses connected to run from both ends like a DMU. Amazingly this was seen at Pattipola, the highest rail station in the country ( 6000 feet Above Mean Sea Level) on an excursion tour a few years ago. Few units are deployed in remote demand routes but not on the hill country line due to low power generation on engines. The picture was taken in the year 2000 summer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Lanka Ashok Leyland Railbus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Red color Railbus. Photographer is unknown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Currently, the rail bus running from Polgahawela Junction to Mahawa is operational.<\/p>\n

Cover image from Ashan Wijekon<\/p>\n

Other images are from https:\/\/www.rail-pictures.com and Primal Madusanka<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Story of Rail Buses in Sri Lanka<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[447,485,9280,484],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-546979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-sri-lanka","category-sri-lanka-railways","category-srilanka"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t