Randles Hill: A Most Peculiar Railway Halt

Other Little Known Railway Halts

Randle’s Hill

An obscure halt with a Colonial name

Long forgotten and swinging in the wind!

Randles Hill is a rather obscure and underused railway halt between Peradeniya Junction and Kandy in Sri Lanka. Although the railway line, the Kandy Spur, traverses the corridor between Kandy and Peradeniya and the track is straddled by two busy main roads, the numerous rail halts on this section are underutilised.

This is rather a pity, as the roads handle a lot of traffic in the form of buses, and a lot of passengers could use the railway if there were sufficient stopping trains. 
One of the problems is that the railway here is still single tracked. 

Although there are plans to upgrade it to dual track and surveys have been undertaken, nothing much has been done at the time of writing. A few culverts have been partly upgraded but that seems to be all. (More: Click Link)

A non-stopping local train

Location: 73:41 from Colombo Terminus (need to check this figure) Randles Hill is a suburb of Kandy and the halt itself is close to the level crossing at Mulgampola (also known as Heerassagala Junction).

Coordinates: 7°16'42"N 80°37'4"E.

Train services: Only five trains stop at this halt daily.

Originally written on the 17th December 2011
Copyright: Text, videos and pics Gyan C A Fernando