Sri Lanka Railways S11
Sri Lanka Railways S11 is a class of Diesel-electric multiple unit train set built for Sri Lanka Railways by Integral Coach Factory, India and imported through RITES Ltd, an Indian state infrastructure corporation on a line of credit extended by the Indian Government. They were built to replace locomotive-hauled passenger trains. Twenty S11 DEMUs were ordered to strengthen long-distance travel on the Coastal Line from Colombo to Matara.
History
Conception
The railway decided to add the DMUs to its service as part of its Coastal line's upgrade project, where track was upgraded to improve speed. The DMUs were built by Integral Coach Factory, to replace locomotive-hauled passenger trains.Inauguration into service
The trains were inaugurated into the railway service on 11 March 2011 with a ceremony at Matara Railway Station. According to a press release from the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka, twenty DEMUs would be supplied to Sri Lanka Railways in phases till March 2012.One of the DEMUs faced technical problems on the Galle–Matara section; during the journey, the train came to an abrupt halt due to an electrical short-circuit and resumed its journey after 20 minutes when the fault was set right. Sri Lanka Railways suspended further importation of the DEMUs. In April 2011, the suspension was revoked after a team from RITES inspected them and declared that the faults were due to an electrical failure caused by tinkering and the DEMU running with more coaches than it was designed for.
Operations
The S11 DMUs are primarily operated on the Coastal line, connecting Colombo, Galle, and Matara. The sets are used on the Ruhunu Kumari, Vavniya ICE and several other suburban trains. Apart from the single instance of a 20-minute failure on the Galle – Matara section, there has been no other failure of the DMUs. Other than on Coastal Line, one DMU is running express on Puttalam Line where it only stops at Negombo and seven other stations up to Chilaw after Dematagoda.Current fleet specifications
| Formation | Number of Cars | Passenger capacity | Key |
| DPC + 3 TC + SC + DTC | 6 | 429 |
|
Crashes & incidents
Alawwa Crash
- 2011 Alawwa rail accident – On 17 September 2011, near Alawwa, two trains collided, killing 3 people and injuring 20. The S11 ran into the rear observation car of the train ahead.