Public transport services did not return to normal by last afternoon even though the thirty-two-and-half-hour curfew imposed on Wednesday was lifted at 6 a.m. yesterday morning. Sri Lanka Central Transport Board (SLCTB) Chairman, Thilak Iddamalgoda told ‘The Island,’ that the SLCTB buses deployed for election duty will not return till early next week.

He assured the general public that the SLCTB bus service would be back to normal by Monday.

In the outstations a few people were seen awaiting buses. The inter-city bus service from Gampaha and Nittambuwa had very few passengers while the private buses too faced the same fate. Fort was almost deserted while a few shops were open for trade.

"I left home early this morning to come to office but I had to wait a long time for a bus. Finally I decided to travel by train," said a commuter who travels to work from Mirigama. "The Bus service in Kottawa was very poor this morning. We had a long wait for a bus to Colombo."

Most people took the day off from their usually busy schedules to go visiting. The uncertainty as to whether the curfew lifted last morning would be re-imposed by evening made people living in outstation areas refrain from leaving their homes to come to work.

Meanwhile the President of the Sri Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association, Gamunu Wijeratne said that the private bus services had returned to normal. "But the owners of long distance buses were cautious of deploying their vehicles onto the roads because of the possibility of curfew being re imposed while the buses were on the roads. They are afraid that they would be unable to return," he said.

Train services were back to normal by 12 noon yesterday following Wednesday’s General Elections. General Manager Railways, Piyal de Silva said that train services resumed after curfew was lifted last morning. He said by 12 noon railway workers had reported to work.

Scheduled office trains came in to Colombo after 6 am. Long distance trains to Badulla and Vavuniya which, scheduled to commence before 6 a.m., also ran behind schedule.

Mr. De Silva said that even during the curfew about four trains operated to Galle, Matara, Puttalam, Rambukkana and Maho to transport public servants who were rosterd for election duty.