Kandy to Ella Train in 2026: What’s Running and How to Go

The Kandy to Ella train wasn’t running from Kandy when we checked on 2 October 2026. Cyclone Ditwah cut the line in late 2025, and repairs were still under way on two sections between Gampola and Nanu Oya (Colombo Times). The far end is open: trains have run between Nanu Oya and Badulla, through Ella, since 20 June 2026 (Ada Derana). So the journey now comes in two parts. Drive from Kandy to Nanu Oya, usually 2.5 to 3 hours (OpenStreetMap). Then ride the train to Ella, which takes about two and a half hours (Sri Lanka Railways seat reservations).

Key takeaways

• When we checked on 2 October 2026, no train ran from Kandy to Ella. That day’s restart from Colombo covered Peradeniya and Gampola only.
• Nanu Oya to Ella was running, with one morning and one afternoon train a day. The booking site listed reserved seats at LKR 1,200 to 2,500, plus a 5% online fee. The Wednesday afternoon train cost LKR 5,000 to 7,000.
• Booking opens 30 days ahead. When we searched on 2 October 2026, the site had no online seats from Nanu Oya on 15 of the next 30 days, yet it had seats from Ella every day.
• We found no firm reopening date for the whole line, so plan the Kandy end by road.

Is the Kandy to Ella train running now?

Not from Kandy. Cyclone Ditwah struck in late 2025 and damaged about 70% of Sri Lanka’s railway network (Wikivoyage). The railway said its Colombo Fort trains would run to Peradeniya and Gampola again from 2 October 2026 (Daily Mirror). A trial train without passengers reached Peradeniya that day (Ada Derana), and the regular timetable was due to start in the afternoon (Colombo Times). None runs into Kandy station: Peradeniya is about six kilometres short of it, and a damaged bridge still blocks that stretch (Daily Excelsior). Beyond Gampola, repairs continued on the line towards Nanu Oya.

The railway’s booking site listed no train from Kandy to Ella on any of the eight October dates we tried (Sri Lanka Railways seat reservations).

How to get from Kandy to Ella in 2026

Until the gap closes, the Kandy end of the trip goes by road. We’ve rounded OpenStreetMap’s times up, because its router assumes empty roads.

Drive to Nanu Oya, then take the train

This keeps the stretch Wikivoyage picks out for its views, between Nuwara Eliya and Ella (Wikivoyage). Leave Kandy by mid-morning for the afternoon train, earlier on a Wednesday, or sleep in Nuwara Eliya and catch the morning one. A night there also leaves time for a factory visit at one of the Nuwara Eliya tea plantations.

Our private car and driver page describes the train day like this: the driver takes the bags by road and waits on the platform at Ella. For now that day starts at Nanu Oya, not Kandy. Without a car, Wikivoyage’s undated listing has a bus from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya every 20 minutes, a trip of 2.5 to 3 hours (Wikivoyage).

Drive the whole way

Kandy to Ella by road usually takes 4 to 5 hours (OpenStreetMap). You lose the train ride, so we’d only choose this in heavy rain or when the trains towards Ella are full.

Or ride it the other way

Seats from Ella towards Nanu Oya were much easier to find when we searched on 2 October 2026 (Sri Lanka Railways seat reservations). If your route runs from the south coast up to Kandy, board at Ella, get off at Nanu Oya and continue by car.

Nanu Oya to Ella train timetable on 2 October 2026

Sri Lanka Railways’ own timetable page was down when we checked (Sri Lanka Railways). So the times and fares below are what its seat reservation site listed on 2 October 2026. The days of running come from the notice the railway issued in Sinhala and Tamil in June 2026, and every train the site listed over 30 days of searches fitted them. The notice puts each Ella arrival two minutes later.

Both regular trains take 2 hours 25 minutes to Ella. Coming back, the site listed train 1016 leaving Ella at 9.50am on every day but Wednesday, train 1006 at 3.51pm daily and train 1044 at 8.41am on Wednesdays. Fares matched the outbound ones, except on the Wednesday train, which cost half as much from Ella: LKR 3,500, 3,000 and 2,500 (Sri Lanka Railways seat reservations).

A shorter ride didn’t cost less: the site quoted the same prices from Nanu Oya to Haputale, Ella, Demodara and Badulla (seat reservations). Paying online adds a 5% fee (reservation FAQ). Treat every time and fare here as provisional, and search again for your own date.

Kandy to Ella train tickets: online and at the station

For Nanu Oya to Ella, the official site let us search without an account, but you must register and log in to buy. Its FAQ set these rules when we read it on 2 October 2026 (reservation FAQ):

• Booking opens 30 days before travel and closes two hours before departure.
• One booking covers up to five seats, and you enter a passport or ID number for every passenger.
• The system picks your seats.
• Your ticket arrives by email, and you can travel on that e-ticket or a printout.
• To cancel, take the e-ticket and your passport to a station counter. You get 75% of the fare back more than seven days ahead, 50% up to 48 hours ahead and nothing after that (booking terms).

Sources disagree about paper tickets. Wikivoyage tells readers to swap the emailed receipt for a ticket at a station (Wikivoyage). According to the railway’s FAQ, stations issue no paper ticket, yet the same site lists counter opening times “for ticket collection” (station counters). We’d show the e-ticket and passport at the counter before boarding.

Seats towards Ella were scarce when we searched on 2 October 2026. We looked for one passenger on each of the 30 days from 3 October to 1 November 2026. From Nanu Oya to Ella the site offered no seats online on 15 of those days, and a single seat on three more. Every Wednesday still had seats on the Ella Odyssey. From Ella to Nanu Oya it had at least 185 seats every day (Sri Lanka Railways seat reservations). That is one day’s snapshot, not a rule, but we’d book as soon as your date opens.

Wikivoyage says each day’s seats go on sale at 10am Sri Lanka time and often sell out within minutes (Wikivoyage). If the site shows nothing, try a station counter: Nanu Oya’s opens from 7am to 11pm and Ella’s from 6am to 9.30pm (station counters).

The Man in Seat 61, a rail guide last updated on 10 June 2026, says virtually all Sri Lankan trains carry unreserved carriages. Stations sell those tickets on the day and they can’t sell out, though you may stand (Seat 61). The railway’s June notice mentions only reservable carriages on these three trains, so ask at Nanu Oya before you rely on one (June 2026 notice, in Sinhala).

Classes and where to sit

Sri Lanka Railways reserves four kinds of seat: observation saloon, air-conditioned saloon, second class and third class (reservation FAQ). On the Nanu Oya to Ella trains we saw the last three for sale, and no observation saloon (Sri Lanka Railways seat reservations). The descriptions below are Seat 61’s (Seat 61).

• Air-conditioned first class has reclining seats, but you sit behind small sealed windows and see less of the journey.
• Second class seats four across beside big windows that open, and Seat 61 prefers it for seeing the hills.
• Third class seats five across. A reserved seat there beats standing in unreserved second class.
• A reserved carriage gives you a seat of your own, and an attendant keeps standing passengers out.

Which side? Wikivoyage says the right, heading towards Badulla (Wikivoyage). In a reserved carriage the system chooses for you anyway, so we wouldn’t hold out for a side.

What you’ll see between Nanu Oya and Ella

After Nanu Oya the train calls at Ambewela and then Pattipola (June 2026 notice, in Sinhala). Pattipola is the summit of the line, 1,898 m above sea level, and from there the track descends past Bandarawela towards Badulla (Wikipedia).

The Nine Arches Bridge isn’t on the way to Ella. It stands between Ella and Demodara stations, so a ticket to Ella stops just short of it. At 91 m long and 24 m high, the viaduct has nine spans and dates from 1919 (Wikipedia). To ride over it, stay on to Demodara, about 15 minutes beyond Ella on the afternoon train (Sri Lanka Railways seat reservations).

At Demodara the line loops round and passes under itself, through a 320 m tunnel that runs directly beneath the station (Wikipedia).

To watch a train cross instead, walk out from Ella town, which takes about 45 minutes. Stay on the paths beside the bridge, as the group in the photo does, and keep off the track. Ella Rock is a longer outing, about two hours each way (Wikivoyage). It’s one of the hiking trails on our list, and our Ella guide compares it with Little Adam’s Peak.

When to ride

Each end of this section has its own dry months. Nuwara Eliya’s driest months are February and March, at 72 to 73 mm each (WMO normals for Nuwara Eliya). Bandarawela, which the train passes before Ella, is driest from June to August, at 68 to 91 mm a month (WMO normals for Bandarawela). October and November are the wettest months at both stations, with 226 to 347 mm each. If that’s when you’re travelling, Sri Lanka in October shows how the rest of the island compares.

Kandy to Ella train tips: luggage, food and open doors

• Overhead racks hold bags up to the size of a large backpack. A big suitcase sits on the floor, and nobody weighs it (Seat 61).
• Bring water and food. Vendors sometimes walk through the train, but Seat 61 advises against relying on them.
• Pack a layer. Nuwara Eliya’s average daily high stays between 18.6 and 22.5°C all year (WMO normals for Nuwara Eliya).
• Keep valuables on you. The UK Foreign Office reports theft and pickpocketing on trains (GOV.UK).

Doors on most Sri Lankan trains stay wide open while the train moves (Seat 61). The Foreign Office tells travellers to stay inside the carriage, because visitors have died after hanging out of open doorways and windows (GOV.UK). One such death was reported on this section in June 2024. A foreign passenger hanging out of a doorway struck a tunnel wall between Nanu Oya and Idalgashinna (Daily Mirror). Take your photographs from your seat, without leaning out of the window.

The full Kandy to Ella train journey, before the cyclone

Until late 2025 this was one ride on the Main Line, the railway from Colombo to Badulla. Kandy sits on a branch that leaves the Main Line at Peradeniya Junction. From the junction, trains climbed through Gampola, Nawalapitiya and Hatton to Nanu Oya (Wikipedia).

On Seat 61’s normal timetable, the Podi Menike, Udarata Menike and Dunhinda Odyssey reached Ella from Kandy in about 6 to 7.5 hours, and a slower early train took 8.5 (Seat 61). If you’re starting in Kandy before the line reopens, see the city first with our plan for Kandy in one day.

When will the Kandy to Ella train reopen?

We found no firm date when we checked on 2 October 2026. Engineers must finish repairing the bridge at Peradeniya before trains can reach Kandy station. The two closed sections on the way up to Nanu Oya must also reopen, and Colombo Times reported only that work on them was continuing (Colombo Times).

Officials have named the end of 2026 more than once, each time as an aim. On 20 June 2026, officials said they expected the whole Colombo to Badulla line back before the year ended (Ada Derana). In April, The Morning had reported a 31 December target from an unnamed ministry official. It depended, the official said, on bridge tests that could end in building a new bridge (The Morning). So don’t plan around a date. Check these instead:

• The railway’s media notices, where it announced the Nanu Oya reopening.
• The seat reservation site. Search Kandy to Ella for your date. If nothing appears, either no train runs that day or its online seats have gone.

Kandy to Ella train: your questions

Is the Kandy to Ella train running now?

Not from Kandy when we checked on 2 October 2026. That day’s restart from Colombo covered Peradeniya and Gampola only (Daily Mirror). Trains were running between Nanu Oya and Badulla, through Ella (Colombo Times).

How long does the train from Kandy to Ella take?

Before the closure, the daytime trains on Seat 61’s timetable took about 6 to 7.5 hours (Seat 61). In October 2026 the trip is a drive to Nanu Oya, usually 2.5 to 3 hours (OpenStreetMap), then 2 hours 25 minutes on the train (Sri Lanka Railways seat reservations).

Is there a Kandy to Ella train timetable?

Not for the whole route until the line reopens, and the railway’s schedule page was offline on 2 October 2026 (Sri Lanka Railways). For Nanu Oya to Ella, the railway’s notice and booking site gave trains at 9.00am daily and at 2.30pm on every day but Wednesday, when a 1.00pm train runs instead (seat reservations; June 2026 notice, in Sinhala).

Can I book Kandy to Ella train tickets online?

You can book the Nanu Oya to Ella part on the official site, from 30 days ahead until two hours before departure. You need an account and a passport number for each passenger (reservation FAQ). Nothing from Kandy was on sale when we searched on 2 October 2026 (Sri Lanka Railways seat reservations).

Does the train to Ella cross the Nine Arches Bridge?

No. The bridge lies between Ella and Demodara stations (Wikipedia). Stay on to Demodara to ride over it, or walk out from Ella to watch a train cross.

Plan the road and the rail day with us

Our Weligama office arranges private trips, each with a driver-guide. While the Kandy to Ella train starts at Nanu Oya, ask us about a private car with driver for the road from Kandy and a pickup from the platform at Ella. Several round tours on our tours page pass through Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Ella. Send us your dates, and we’ll plan the day around the trains running that week.

We read the railway’s sites, searched its booking system and worked out the road times on 2 October 2026. Repairs continue and timetables change without notice, so look again before you travel.

• Hill Country Sri Lanka
• Kandy to Ella
• Oura Travel Tours
• Scenic Rail Journeys
• Sri Lanka Train
• Sri Lanka travel guide
• Train Booking Sri Lanka

Gayan Weerasinghe

Written by the Oura Travel team in Weligama, who plan and guide these routes in person.