Commuters in the class one compartment of the Vavuniya - Colombo Intercity Express Train, who assembled at the Anuradhapura Railway Station on January 1, saw a seat empty with a hat of a guard hung on the rack above.
On inquiry, commuters who were hard pressed for seating accommodation found that this seat was reserved for the guard in the train who used to sit there in turns after his regular patrols inside the train.To the bewilderment if not amusement of the commuters, they found a Muslim woman with a dressed wound in her leg seated on the aisle nearby with much agony.Although railway guards could not be expected to keep on standing during the entire length of the journey of a train, railway authorities should try to devise some other means to accommodate their staff without causing undue hardship to train travelers, most commuters said.