← All articles · 2026-07-26

The Hill Country Train

A June 2014 ride on Sri Lanka's hill country railway: blue carriages curving through tea, token loops, station name boards, heads out of every window.

Sri Lanka saved its best transport for the hills. In June 2014 we gave a whole day to the slow blue train through the tea country, from the little platform at Ella to the junction at Nawalapitiya, windows down the entire way.

Boarding at Ella

Dileep in a hat with a rucksack on the platform at Ella station, other travellers waiting in the shade of the canopy — Waiting at Ella station, where the platform doubles as the village meeting point.

A stationmaster in white uniform holding up a hooped token as a blue train pulls into Ella station — The stationmaster holds up the token loop for the incoming driver: proof the single line ahead is clear. The railway still runs on this Victorian system.

Inga photographing the trackside greenery through the open window of a train carriage — Window down, camera up: the standard seating position for the next few hours.

Inga turning around in her seat in an almost empty blue train carriage — In June 2014 we had half the carriage to ourselves.

Through the tea

Blue carriages curving around a hillside cutting with passengers leaning out of the doorways above tea bushes — The train leans round a curve with half its passengers hanging out of the doorways. Nobody minds.

The line of blue carriages ahead crossing a narrow stone viaduct above a wooded valley — Watching our own train cross a viaduct, photographed from the open door.

Passengers leaning out of the blue train windows with a camera and a phone pointed down the line — Everyone shoots the same shot. Everyone is right to.

Inga leaning out of a blue carriage window and smiling back down the line of the train — Inga, fully converted to Sri Lankan rail travel.

Dileep leaning out of the carriage doorway pointing his camera along the side of the train — Dileep in the doorway, chasing the front of the train round every bend.

Blue train crossing a black girder bridge over a river with a hillside town stacked up behind — Rattling over a girder bridge with a whole town stacked up the hillside behind.

View from the carriage window of the train curving over a river bridge, arms and phones out of the windows ahead — Every bridge doubles the number of arms out of the windows.

The world going past

A white waterfall threading down through thick green forest — A waterfall threading down through the forest, spotted from the window.

Terraced vegetable plots and small farmhouses covering a hillside with wooded ridges beyond — Where tea gives way to vegetables: terraced plots stitched over an entire hillside.

A man washing at a small spring on a green hillside, seen from the passing train — Trackside life: a wash at a hillside spring.

Collecting stations

Bandarawela station name board in Sinhala, Tamil and English behind a white trackside fence — Bandarawela, first of the trilingual name boards we collected along the way.

A woman in a striped pink top walking along a station platform, other travellers and the line soft in the background — Platform life somewhere along the line.

Haputale station sign in three languages noting 1431.4 metres above mean sea level, backpackers standing beside it — Haputale: 1,431.4 metres above the sea, according to the board.

A blue train waiting beside the old station house at Great Western, seen past the carriages of another train — Crossing trains at Great Western, under the mountain that gives the station its name.

A hawker with a basket selling snacks to passengers through the open train window at a platform — The buffet car comes to you: a hawker working the windows at a stop.

Nawalapitiya station platform with hanging trilingual signs, a clock and crowds of passengers under the iron roof — Journey's end at Nawalapitiya, under the clock and the loudspeakers.

Start in Ella, finish anywhere: the ride is the destination. We stepped off and headed back towards Kandy.