Queen of the Sea rail disaster

World's biggest rail disaster occurred when the a train overflowing with passengers was destroyed on a coastal railway in Sri Lanka by the tsunami which followed the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake. Up to 2,000 people were killed, making it the world's worst railway accident and eclipsing the previous record at the Bihar train disaster in India in 1981, when a train derailed and fell off a bridge, drowning about 800 people.

[ Earlier it was documented here as train that was destroyed by Tsunami was "Queen of the Sea", or "Samudradevi" in Sinhalese, but later corrected. Samudradevi is a office train which runs on weekdays on different timing between Galle and Colombo and it did not operate on December 26th 2004 which is a public holiday and a Sunday ] .

The tsunami

The train was a regular service operating between Colombo, Sri Lanka, and the southern resort town of Galle. The route of the train runs along the coast of Sri Lanka, and at Telwatta the line is about 200 metres inland. It has been described as Sri Lanka's most popular tourist train, and on Sunday, December 26, 2004, during both the Christmas holiday weekend and a Buddhist full moon holiday, it was particularly full when it left Colombo shortly after 7.30 a.m. with around 1,500 passengers on board.

Suddenly, at 9.30 a.m., in the village of Peraliya near Telwatta, the beach was hit by the first of the huge waves thrown up by the earthquake which had occurred off the coast of Indonesia shortly before. The train came to a halt as water surged around it and hundreds of local people, believing the train to be secure on the rails, climbed on top of the train to avoid being swept away. Others stood behind it, hoping the train would take the force of the wave. The wave caused flooding in the carriages and began to cause panic amongst the passengers, but the next wave, by far the biggest of the day at over six metres high, picked the train up and smashed it against the trees and houses which lined the track, crushing those seeking shelter behind it. The eight carriages were so packed with people that the doors could not be opened, and they filled with water, drowning almost everyone inside, as the water washed over the wreckage several more times.

The casualties

Due to the huge scale of the disaster, the authorities were utterly unable to cope with the sheer weight of devastation, and emergency services and military forces were so stretched that immediate rescue was not an option. In fact, the Sri Lankan authorities had no idea where the train was for several hours, until it was spotted from the air. The local emergency services were destroyed, and it was a long time before help arrived. Dozens of people badly injured in the disaster died in the wreckage during the day, and many bodies were not retrieved for well over a week. Some families descended on the area determined to find their relatives, such as the wife of the train's driver, who bitterly reported:

"Nobody helped us. I had to find his body myself. I went inside the engine driver's compartment. His brother carried the body with his bare hands and we brought it to Colombo in our vehicle."

According to the Sri Lankan authorities, only a few dozen people on the train survived, the estimated death toll being at least 1,700 and probably over 2,000, although only approximately 900 bodies were recovered by the authorities because many were swept out to sea or taken away unofficially by relations. The town of Peraliya was also destroyed, losing hundreds of citizens to the waves and all but 10 buildings. Over 200 of the bodies retrieved were not identified or claimed, and were buried three days later in a Buddhist ceremony near the torn railway line.

The aftermath

Since the disaster some local people have claimed that their relatives would not have died if the train hadn't been there because they would have headed to higher ground instead and described the train as a "curse" on the town. Others however, have welcomed plans to use the wreckage of the train as a memorial for Sri Lanka's 41,000 dead in the disaster. The first anniversary ceremonies were held amongst the rebuilt town, alongside the repaired railway, which still operates a Colombo to Galle service, employing the same guard who was on the train that day and managed to survive.

Other Sri Lankan villages have expressed resentment that Peraliya has received so much government and international attention and claim that many other areas of coastline are being neglected in favour of the area around the train wreck.

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4132247.stm BBC News Report]
* [http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-12-28-tsunami-train_x.htm USA Today Report]
* [http://www.thingsasian.com/goto_article/article.3089.html Traveler's report]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4560598.stm BBC One year anniversary]
* [http://www.abooda.com/feature/Peraliya.asp Sri Lankan account]
* [http://www.peraliya.com/ The Peraliya Official Website]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/tsunami/story/0,15671,1380501,00.html Steele, Jonathan. "One train, more than 1,700 dead.",] "The Guardian". December 29, 2004.

See also

*list of railway accidents
*Transport in Sri Lanka