This is not a story about a Goddess of the Indian Ocean or about a Queen of the Sea. I am referring to the mundane, jerky, metal contraption, meant for travel by mere mortals like you and me - specifically the commuter train named Samudra Devi that brings workers daily to the city of Colombo from Galle and other towns along the way. Samudra Devi is unique in many ways. Commuters on this train are known to provide, every once in a while, a newsworthy, spicy headline. It was therefore no surprise when I read that Samudra Devi had recently hit the new stands once again.

"Samudra Devi replaced amidst mixed reactions" read the headline in the daily newspaper. The headline was no surprise though the news story was surprising. The report said that the railway department had been receiving complaints from a section of the commuters traveling daily in Samudra Devi that ‘some young couples in the train have made it a practice to use the train as a rendezvous for love making and that they have expressed disgust over certain lewd scenes they have been compelled to witness’. The department was already aware of earlier reports that some commuters have even been using toilets for indecent activities.

The railway authorities therefore had decided that it was time to take action on the complaint. Being a transport organization, the SLR admittedly, didn’t have jurisdiction to deal with love-making on trains or deem it prudent to deal with offenders. Besides, the Samudra Devi could not have been kept languishing at the railway station platform in Galle, had a case been sent up to be determined in court. There was an element of urgency in whatever action to be taken. Hence they had to go for a ‘quick fix’ departmentally and the SLR can do that in its own inimitable way.

Accordingly, the department decided to ‘switch’ the train set consisting of conventional carriages, the internal architecture of which, they thought, may have aided those who indulged in the reported activities, with a Power Set consisting of two whole sets of four car Diesel Multiple Units each. An operational order was issued and the change was carried out with immediate effect.

Even at this stage the change, being a purely internal operational matter, would ordinarily have gone unnoticed. However, it was not to be. The news report further said that changing the train formation to a power set gave rise to worse protests from a whole lot of Samudra Devi commuters including the earlier complainants as well as those accused of misconduct. These protests culminated in a hold up of the Samudra Devi one morning as the train passed the Payagala South railway station where protesters had placed old sleepers and other obstacles across the track. The demand was to bring back the old train set and deal with the earlier complaint appropriately.

Whilst it is understood that the complainants had justifiable reason to protest as they were being deprived of the comforts and conveniences they have been enjoying for well nigh fifty years, the offending parties who were responsible for prompting the department to take such action also would have been a party to the protest for the very obvious hidden reason that they were being deprived of opportunities they previously had been ‘enjoying’.

The departmental action to switch train sets had arisen as a result of an unusual type of complaint from commuters. On its own, the railway authorities would not have had a good reason to opt for an ‘extreme make over’ of the train formation as suggested in the news item. Why did the implementation of this simple operational decision taken by the department to switch the train sets in Samudra Devi to settle an issue raised by commuters themselves, cause such uproar? What would have motivated even the complainants to join in the protest? What are the salient features of a train set as compared to a ‘Power Set’ that are likely to throw some light on the reasons for their protest? How would each type affect the commuter, the commuter service and the department? The history of the train may provide some of the answers.

Fifty years ago the train was an ordinary unnamed passenger train that ran from Galle to Colombo daily to similar timings as today, leaving Galle around 4/30 am. The use of a train set with conventional carriages was by design and not accidental. Long distance trains at the time were hauled by a steam locomotive, and had the usual complement of ten to twelve wooden carriages passed over from British times. The type of rolling stock and the infrastructure at the time permitted average speeds of around 20 mph. In keeping with the slow life of the times however, speed was not a priority.

These carriages provided toilet facilities, the maximum seating accommodation, and adequate space for the convenience of long distance travelers. The carriages were borne on bogies with plain bearings. They were linked together with screw couplings. Only a primary suspension mechanism was provided for comfort, using a combination of semi-elliptic leaf springs and coils springs. These physical characteristics of the rolling stock matched ruling speeds of around 20 mph that prevailed at the time. However, travelers were assured of a reliable and safe service with sufficient space and conveniences than other forms of internal transport in the country at the time.

Samudra Devi ran as a slow train from Galle up to Kalutara South and as a limited express beyond. It helped those who wished to travel up to Colombo from Galle and other towns on the way to attend to their errands and return home by evening. It was also used by families traveling on pleasure trips and family visits with children during school vacations. Children loved the steam trains with enough room in a railway carriage for them to move around. The seating arrangements in a carriage were friendly towards family or group travel, with pairs of two long seats fixed opposite one another that would enable at least six passengers facing each ther to sit together in comfort and with some degree of privacy. The arrangement was repeated across and along the carriage with access to the seats from the aisle along the center and through the carriage doors.

In the early days the train ran as an ordinary passenger train. Commuters living along the coast line in the outer Colombo area saw an advantage in boarding the Samudra Devi to travel to work. For, from the inception, the arrival time of this train in Colombo had been fixed to be between 8.30 am and 8.45 am which beat the red line for white-collar workers working in the city. Hence this became one more convenient train that helped commuters in the suburbs on the coast line to commute to work. While those who traveled strictly within the designated commuter area i.e. from Kalutara South, were entitled to the concessionary season tickets, even others began using Samudra Devi to commute, though without concessions. With the employment explosion within the city of Colombo, the number of commuters taking the train even from Galle began to increase considerably, though without concessionary travel facilities.

With the introduction of designated commuter services in the suburban and outer Colombo areas during the early nineteen sixties, the department put into service state of the art rolling stock custom built for the type of service which was distinctly different to the type of carriages in a long distance train. They were driven by diesel locomotives, built integral with the rest of the train. Termed ‘diesel multiple units’ or commonly as Power Sets, they were designed with higher acceleration and more powerful braking devices installed in them so that minimum time was used for each stop and start at the many suburban stations that a commuter power set would stop on its journey.

The internal architecture of a coach was totally different to that of a conventional carriage of a long distance train including the Samudra Devi. There were only two long seats in a coach, adjacent to the windows on either side so as to maximize the accommodation for standing passengers and meet the problem of overcrowding. The journey times were shorter and hence it wasn’t a discomfort for commuters to stand all the way through, while the Power Sets would save substantial time on the total journey. train spilling passengers on to the footboards and on to whatever perch a commuter could hang on to despite the enormous risk.

(The writer is a former General Manager of Railways)