Rajadhani Express

Blue Line Express (Sinhala: රාජධානි එක්ස්ප්‍රස් Rajadhani Ekspras) is a train service provider in Sri Lanka, a part of Blue Line Company. Blue Line Express provides premium services on several routes in Sri Lanka, in partnership with Sri Lanka Railways. Although it does not yet operate its own trains for scheduled services, it operates carriages that are attached to trains operated by Sri Lanka Railways.

Blue Line Express

Main route(s)	Main Line
Other route(s)	Coastal Line
Parent company	Blue Line Company
Other
Website	www.rajadhani.lk

Overview

Detail of logo and livery

Although Blue Line Express carriages are attached to Sri Lanka Railways-operated trains, Blue Line provides on-board services and markets it as a separate operation. The service is aimed at middle and upper middle-income and tourist markets. Sri Lanka Railways generates revenue by charging Blue Line a standard first-class fare per seat. Blue Line charges an additional premium on its passengers beyond the standard fare to provide its services.[1]

History

The Blue Line Company launched Rajadhani Express on October 1, 2011, with its first service on a Kandy intercity train. On the same day, a competing service was launched by Expolanka, called ExpoRail. Eventually, they stopped the service because of contract agreement delays from the Government. On 1st March 2019, The service started to Kandy with a new name(Blue Line Express)and updated carriages.[2]

Services

Blue Line Express serves one route, on the upcountry rail line in Sri Lanka.[3]

	Route	Calling at	Frequency
Main Line	Colombo Fort to Kandy	All Main Line stations	Daily for Kandy;

Rolling Stock

Rolling stock

Blue Line Express uses Romanian-built ASTRA passenger coaches. Imported by Sri Lanka Railways in the 1990s, they were refurbished in 2011-2012 to Blue Line's specifications. They were painted gold and blue to suit the name change from "Rajadhani" to "Blue Line Express" in 2019.

See also

• ExpoRail, Rajadhani's main competitor, serving a similar niche market

References

1. "Luxury rail services on tracks from today". Daily FT. 2011-10-06. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
2. "Sri Lankan railway introduces luxury class Services on Colombo -Kandy rails". News.lk. 2011-11-07. Archived from the original on 4 April 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
3. "Time Schedules and Rates". Rajadhani Express. Retrieved 10 August 2013.