Public Transportation in Sri Lanka relies mainly on Bus connections.
Bus:
All the cities are well connected by Bus Lines. To figure out which bus is going when is not that easy but the good thing is that the go quite often. A good rule of thumb is that about every 30 minutes a bus will go to all major cities.
Train:
Train schedules are easier to figure out and the Sri Lankan Railways Website is helpful. A major problem is the booking of train journeys. If you are just travelling with one backpack you can go 3rd class more easy. So you just buy a ticket at the station. 3rd class and sometimes 2nd class you can always buy directly at the station, first class and seat reservation is a bit more tricky. You cannot book online (except from private operators) and have to buy to very odd times at some certain stations. For example the ride in first class or second class with seat reservation from Nuwara Eliya to Ella was just bookable from 4-6 pm at the station Nano Oya (close to Nuwara Eliya) or Colombo or Kandy. We didn’t manage to get one of these, so we travelled 3rd class. If you are up for it and don’t mind that you have to mingle a bit with the locals and worst case scenario stand in the train for 4-5 hours, it’s a very cool experience.
We really liked it for the first 3 hours then it got a bit exhausting.
But with this way you are privileged to hang outside the train doors and sit on the train door steps for the closest travel experience to the outer surroundings as possible. Plus it is not that dangerous cause the train is pretty slow (20-30 km/h)
Train Ticket prices:
Train is really cheap. For the 4-5 hour ride from Nuwara Eliya to Ella we payed about 60 rupees (0,75€) for our third class ticket. 2nd class is also cheap, but 1st class gets a bit expensive for Sri Lankan standards. This ticket would have been about 1100 rupees (8 €). Compared to western standards, still a bargain.
Bus Ticket prices:
Also super cheap. A one hour bus ride from Weligama to Galle cost us 40 rupees per person. And it’s also a nice experience to see how the locals travel.