Last week I took the train from Fort Station in Colombo to Haputalle in the Hill Country. I stayed the night in a Tea Bungalow and travelled by train again to Colombo the next day. This is the story of that journey

Sri Lanka’s railway network was introduced by the British Colonial Government in 1864. The main reason for building a railway system in Ceylon, as the country was called then, was to transport tea and coffee from the hill country to Colombo for export.

Fort Railway Station

Fort Railway Station is the central station of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. It has remained virtually unchanged since it opened in 1908. The station has 10 platforms and handles 0.2 million passengers daily.  There is a small ladies waiting room and another for gentlemen. A tiny kiosk on Platform 1 sells packs of peanuts, ice cream and bottled water and a “cafeteria” offers…