How to Book a Sri Lanka Train Ticket

Train rides in Sri Lanka are festive, adventurous, and hyped for a reason. The railways tracks run over mountains, through tunnels, parallel to the Indian ocean and often through the clouds! From your seat, you explore the tea plantations, pine trees, white stupa towering distant villages on top of mountains, and locals smiling and waving at you.

In our Sri Lanka trip we took the trains four times. In this document we will cover everything you need to know to book your train ticket and plan your journey.

Railway Map

Trains are comfortable in Sri Lanka. The Kandy to Ella route runs through forest, hills, clouds, and one can see many waterfalls. The route is a subset of the greater Colombo to Badulla route. The Galle to Colombo route runs parallel to the Indian ocean - the waves hit directly the train track.

Booking a seat

Train seat booking website - https://seatreservation.railway.gov.lk/mtktwebslr/ Tickets are released on the website 30 days ahead of the journey date around 10 AM SLST. Kandy to Ella tickets are sold out pretty quickly.

RDMNS.LK: Live Train Alerts app is very useful for seeing train schedules, delays, seat layouts etc.

Sometimes tickets of some trains or some routes do not appear on the website, that was the case for us when we tried to book a ticket on Dunhinda Odyssey Express for Nanu Oya to Ella, one month ahead right at the time when train tickets were released. We searched the internet and asked in Facebook groups but no one could give us an explanation. Best to follow up train schedules, book Ella Odyssey than Dunhinda Odyssey, plan the trip so that the Kandy to Ella route journey does not follow on a day when no train runs for that route.

Which class seats should you book?

We preferred 2nd class reserved seats than 1st class because 1st class seats have closed window. 2nd class seats have open window where view is clear. In reserved coaches, there are space to keep your luggages.

On the journey date, unreserved seats can be booked from the stations. There are some 2nd class and 3rd class compartments called normal/mixed cars where people can stand after seats are filled up. These compartments are closed, meaning one passenger can’t move from one car to another.

Note that the tickets are checked during exit from the railway station, so till you exit the railway station after completing your journey, do not lose your physical ticket.

We took two 2nd class reserved seats at Odyssey trains (Colombo to Kandy, Kandy to Nanu Oya), one 2nd class unreserved seat at Podi Menike (Nanu Oya to Ella), one 1st class reserved seat at Galu Kumari (Galle to Colombo). We had to journey standing in the Nanu Oya to Ella route, but it was worth it because of the stunning view and the crowd also enjoy it together.

Checkout our travel guide for planning your Sri Lanka trip. If you have any questions for booking trains or any in general questions for your Sri Lanka plan, leave us a comment!