page_title: Jaffna railway station
section_title: War and Closure
hierarchical_section_title: Jaffna railway station / History / War and Closure
caption_attribution_description: The railway station at Jaffna. It's been abandoned for a few decades now, and it shows. Nice place to go take some dramatic portraits.
context_page_description: Jaffna railway station is a railway station in the city of Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka. Owned by Sri Lanka Railways, the state-owned railway operator, the station is one of the busiest in the country, linking the north with the capital Colombo.
  The popular Yarl Devi service, which operates on the Northern Line, calls at this station. In the late 1980s the station suffered heavy damage due to the civil war. All railway services on the Northern Line north of Vavuniya had stopped by 1990. The station was abandoned, suffering further damage in the following years. The civil war ended in 2009 and the government started various projects to rebuild the line and stations. The Northern Line between Pallai and Jaffna was re-opened on 13 October 2014.
context_section_description: The line's fortunes waned when the civil war started in 1983 - the government increased the number of soldiers stationed in the north, many of whom used the line to return to their homes in the south. Thus the Yarl Devi service became a target for Tamil militants as it passed through areas they controlled. It was blown up by Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization cadres near Murikandy, Mullaitivu District on the night of 19 January 1985, killing 34 people including 22 soldiers and destroying the tracks. The service was attacked again on 25 March 1986 between Puliyankulam and Vavuniya. The railway tracks were relaid by the Indian Peace Keeping Force and in August 1987 the Jaffna-Colombo rail services resumed. However, the deteriorating security meant that only a few people used the service. After the IPKF withdrew from Sri Lanka in 1990 the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam took over most of the territory the IPKF had controlled, including Jaffna. In the middle of 1990 the truce between the LTTE and Sri Lankan government broke down and full-scale war erupted. Intense fighting took place in and around Jaffna as the Sri Lankan military tried to regain control of the area. Hundreds of civilians fleeing the fighting took refuge in Jaffna Railway Station. The station was bombed by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) on 9 August 1990, damaging 6 train carriages and killing eight people nearby. The station was bombed to a shell by the SLAF. On 13 June 1990 the Yarl Devi service rolled into Jaffna but it could not return to Colombo as the railway track had been destroyed (it would be the last rail service into Jaffna). The station was bombed again on 16 August 1990. In the next few years the entire track between Kankesanthurai and Vavuniya and abandoned railway coaches were removed by the Sri Lankan military and Tamil rebels for use as bunkers.
caption: Abandoned station in August 2011
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