# The Kandy to Ella train

*Half of it is running. Here is which half, and what to do about it.*

Published 24 August 2026 · last checked 16 September 2026 · https://srilankatour.travel/guides/kandy-to-ella-train

This is the most searched question about travel in Sri Lanka, and almost every page answering it is out of date. Cyclone Ditwah tore up the hill country line in late 2025. Some of it is back. The famous through journey from Kandy is not — not yet — and you should plan around that rather than turn up at Kandy station and find out.

## Key facts

- **Nanu Oya → Haputale → Ella → Badulla:** Running. Reopened 20 June 2026; two trains a day each way.
- **Kandy → Hatton → Nanu Oya:** Closed for repairs. No date for this section; the Ministry's deadline for the whole line is 31 December 2026.
- **Colombo → Kandy via Peradeniya:** Closed. October 2026 per the Deputy Minister on 7 September — an intention, not a timetable.
- **Through Kandy–Ella train:** Not possible as of 16 September 2026
- **The workaround:** Road to Nanu Oya (2–3 h from Kandy), then train
- **Best section anyway:** Nanu Oya → Ella — the tea estates and Nine Arch
- **Checked:** 16 September 2026

## What happened to the line

Cyclone Ditwah hit in late November and December 2025 and did more damage to Sri Lanka's railways than anything in living memory — 159 landslides and 95 washouts across the network, with total national damage put at around Rs 341 billion. The hill country line, which climbs from Kandy through Hatton and Nanu Oya to Badulla, took the worst of it, because it is the line most exposed to unstable slope.

Repairs have been steady rather than fast. By early May 2026, 92 of the 97 damaged sites between Maradana and Peradeniya had been restored. What is left is the hard part. Five critical locations between Rambukkana and Kadugannawa were still outstanding in early September 2026, and the worst of them is the Peradeniya Black Bridge over the Mahaweli — Kalu Palama to everyone local — where a pier tilted seven to eight degrees in the cyclone. On 7 September 2026 the river rose and put the construction machinery under water, which is the kind of setback this line keeps having. Those few sites are the reason Kandy is still cut off from both Colombo and the hills by rail. The Transport Ministry's revised deadline for the whole Colombo–Badulla line, set after the April 2026 target was missed, is 31 December 2026.

## What is running, as of 16 September 2026

### Running: Nanu Oya to Badulla

The section from Nanu Oya — the station for Nuwara Eliya, about twenty minutes out of the town — down through Haputale, Ohiya, Bandarawela, Ella and Demodara to Badulla reopened on 20 June 2026. Sri Lanka Railways' notice of 18 June 2026 lists two trains a day in each direction, four trips in total, and it is still the current timetable as of 16 September 2026. This includes the Nine Arch Bridge at Demodara and the long run along the tea estates that most of the photographs you have seen were taken on.

| Train | Runs | Nanu Oya | Haputale | Ella | Badulla |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1005 down to Badulla | Daily | 09:00 | 10:28 | 11:27 | 12:16 |
| 1015 down to Badulla | Daily except Wednesday | 14:30 | 15:58 | 16:57 | 17:46 |
| 1043 Ella Odyssey | Wednesday only | 13:00 | 14:29 | 15:21 | 16:12 |
| 1016 up to Nanu Oya | Daily except Wednesday | 12:16 | 10:49 | 09:52 | 09:00 |
| 1006 up to Nanu Oya | Daily | 18:06 | 16:49 | 15:52 | 15:00 |
| 1044 Ella Odyssey | Wednesday only | 11:29 | 09:39 | 08:43 | 07:45 |

*Sri Lanka Railways timetable notice of 18 June 2026, in force from 20 June; re-checked 16 September 2026. Trains 1005/1006 carry the Podi Menike numbers and 1015/1016 the Udarata Menike numbers, but both now run only as Nanu Oya–Badulla shuttles. On Wednesdays the Ella Odyssey tourist train replaces 1015/1016.*

Read the uphill rows right to left: train 1006 leaves Badulla at 15:00, Ella at 15:52 and reaches Nanu Oya at 18:06. All six call at Ambewela, Pattipola, Ohiya, Idalgashinna, Diyatalawa, Bandarawela and Demodara. For most travellers the 09:00 from Nanu Oya is the one — two and a half hours to Ella in daylight, and time for the Nine Arch Bridge on foot the same afternoon.

### Closed: Kandy to Nanu Oya

The stretch above it, through Hatton and the high plateau, is still under repair, and Sri Lanka Railways has not published a reopening date for it. A short local service runs between Nawalapitiya and Hatton, which is no use to a traveller heading for Ella. Nothing we have seen puts a month on this section specifically — only the end-of-year deadline for the whole line — so plan on the road workaround below for any journey before 2027.

### Closed: Colombo to Kandy

Colombo Fort to Rambukkana is open; Rambukkana through Kadugannawa to Kandy is not. On 5 September 2026 the Railway Department's Chief Engineer said Colombo Fort to Kandy services via Peradeniya were expected to resume next month, and on 7 September the Deputy Minister of Transport repeated October, adding that the Rambukkana–Kadugannawa rebuild was due to finish on 15 September. Both are stated intentions rather than a published timetable; the same week's reporting carried the Black Bridge flooding, and earlier deadlines on this line have slipped more than once. Until a timetable appears on railway.gov.lk, Colombo to Kandy is a road journey.

### Unaffected: the coastal line

Colombo to Galle, Hikkaduwa, Weligama and Matara runs normally and always has. It is a lovely, cheap, slow ride along the sea, and if the hill country line disappoints you, this is the consolation.

> **Check it yourself before you commit:** This is a moving situation and a page dated last month can be wrong. Check the Sri Lanka Railways site or ask us on WhatsApp in the week you travel. We re-check this page regularly and stamp the date on it; if the date at the foot is more than a few weeks old, treat it as indicative.

## How to ride it anyway

Almost everyone who wanted the Kandy–Ella train wanted the scenery, and the scenery is in the half that is open. So the standard workaround is straightforward, and it is what we arrange for our own travellers at the moment.

- Drive from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya — three and a half hours by road, and one of the best drives in the country in its own right, through the tea estates with a factory stop.
- Sleep in Nuwara Eliya. It is cold, it is odd, it thinks it is in Surrey, and it is worth a night.
- Take the train from Nanu Oya the next morning. Nanu Oya to Ella is roughly three to four hours and is the section with the tea slopes, the tunnels and the Nine Arch Bridge.
- Have your driver take the bags round by road and meet you at Ella station. This is the part independent travellers miss — you ride unencumbered, and there is no scramble for a tuk-tuk at the far end.

If you are travelling the other way, from the south, it works just as well in reverse — train from Ella up to Nanu Oya, car onward to Kandy.

## Tickets, classes, and which side to sit on

| Class | What it is | Worth it? |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Second class reserved | Fan, opening windows, assigned seat | The best compromise. Windows open, and you can stand in the doorway. |
| Third class unreserved | No seat guarantee, windows wide open, crowded | The most fun and the most uncomfortable. Board at the origin station or you will stand. |
| First class observation | Rear carriage, big sealed windows, air-conditioned | Sealed windows mean reflections in every photograph. We would not. |
| Private observation saloon | Chartered carriage on some services | Comfortable, expensive, and you are still behind glass. |

*Reserved seats on the hill country line sell out early, particularly in the December–March and July–August peaks.*

Reserved tickets open thirty days ahead on the official portal, seatreservation.railway.gov.lk, and booking closes two hours before departure; the site adds a five per cent fee. The reopened Nanu Oya–Badulla trains carry first class air-conditioned and second class reserved carriages only — there is no reserved third class on them — and unreserved seats are sold at the station on the day, which is why they are the fallback when everything else has gone. One quirk from the booking site's own notes: a reserved ticket that shows Ambewela as the origin or destination is valid to board or alight at Nanu Oya.

> **Which side:** Travelling from Nanu Oya down towards Ella, sit on the right for the tea estates and the drops. Coming up from Ella, sit on the left. And the doorway is better than either — it is legal, everyone does it, and the only rule that matters is do not lean out on a bend or in a tunnel. People have been killed doing it for photographs.

## Is it actually worth it?

Honestly: yes, and it is also oversold. It is a slow train through genuinely beautiful country, and it is one of the best rail journeys in Asia. It is also crowded, frequently late, and the section people photograph most — the Nine Arch Bridge — is more impressive viewed from the ground than from a carriage crossing it.

If you have four hours and a fondness for trains, take it. If you are travelling with small children, or with someone who does not enjoy being packed into a carriage, the road journey through the same hills is faster, cooler and stops where you want it to. Neither answer is wrong.

## Frequently asked questions

**Is the Kandy to Ella train running in 2026?**

Not as a through journey. As of 16 September 2026 the Nanu Oya to Badulla section — which includes Haputale, Ella, Demodara and the Nine Arch Bridge — is running, having reopened on 20 June 2026 after Cyclone Ditwah repairs, with two trains a day in each direction. The Kandy to Nanu Oya section above it remains closed with no confirmed reopening date, so you cannot board at Kandy and arrive at Ella by rail.

**How do I get from Kandy to Ella right now?**

By road to Nanu Oya or Nuwara Eliya — about three and a half hours through the tea estates — and then by train from Nanu Oya down to Ella, which takes another three to four hours and covers the most scenic part of the line. Most travellers break the journey with a night in Nuwara Eliya rather than doing both in one day.

**When will the full Kandy to Ella line reopen?**

No date has been published for the Kandy to Nanu Oya section on its own. The Transport Ministry's deadline for the whole Colombo–Badulla line is 31 December 2026, set after the April 2026 target was missed. For the section below it, both the Railway Department's Chief Engineer (5 September 2026) and the Deputy Minister of Transport (7 September) said Colombo Fort to Kandy via Peradeniya should resume in October 2026, with the Peradeniya Black Bridge the last big obstacle. Treat October as an intention rather than a timetable — deadlines on this line have moved before — and treat the hill section above Nanu Oya as open-ended.

**Which is the most scenic part of the hill country train?**

Nanu Oya to Ella, and it is the part that is open. The line runs along the contour through tea estates at around 1,800 metres, drops through Haputale and Bandarawela, and crosses the Nine Arch Bridge just before Ella. The section above Nanu Oya towards Hatton is fine but is not the reason people take this train.

**How much does the Ella train cost?**

Very little by any standard. Sri Lanka Railways has not published a fare table for the reopened Nanu Oya to Badulla service, so we will not quote one; the booking site shows the exact fare before you pay, and on pre-cyclone pricing a reserved second-class seat Nanu Oya to Ella was well under LKR 1,500. Anything offered online at LKR 4,000 to 5,000 is a reseller's mark-up, not the fare. The real cost of this journey is never money; it is the reserved seats selling out thirty days ahead in high season.

**Can I book Sri Lanka train tickets online?**

Yes, at seatreservation.railway.gov.lk, the official Sri Lanka Railways portal; the older eservices address no longer works. Reserved seats open thirty days before departure, sales close two hours before the train leaves, and a five per cent fee is added. Unreserved seats are sold at the station on the day only. In practice, in high season, most travellers either book the moment the window opens or take unreserved and board at the origin station to get a seat.


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Source: https://srilankatour.travel/guides/kandy-to-ella-train
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