It is the largest railway station in Kerala in terms of passenger movement and an important rail hub in Southern Railway.[2] It is one of profitable stations under Southern Railway. The building of the railway station is one of the landmarks of Thiruvananthapuram. Thiruvananthapuram Central is also a terminating point for the proposed Chennai - Bengaluru - Thiruvananthapuram High Speed Rail (HSR)
corridor and the proposed Thiruvananthapuram - Mangalore High Speed Rail corridor. The railway station is located opposite to Central Bus Station Thiruvananthapuram at Thampanoor. Trains from here connect the city of Thiruvananthapuram to major cities of India. This station is also noted for a whole range of amenities available within the premises. The station has book-shops, restaurants, accommodation and Internet browsing centers. A second satellite station was opened in 2005 at Kochuveli called the Kochuveli Railway Station, near the International Airport. Thiruvananthapuram is the first major city from south along the longest train routes in India, the Kanyakumari-Thiruvananthapuram-Dibrugarh Vivek Express route and the Kanyakumari-Thiruvananthapuram-Jammu Tawi-SVDK Himsagar Express route. A second terminal (south Terminal) was opened in 2004 to handle passenger traffic and later a West Terminal in 2007. To reduce traffic, the Central Railway Station has 18 railway tracks.[3]
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8714803901, 8893044301, 9388491401, 9048361181, 9048365781. The Madras-Quilon line was extended to the capital of the Princely State of Travancore, Thiruvananthapuram and was opened on 4 January 1918. The line then terminated at Chakka, which was the trading centre of Thiruvananthapuram then. Watts, Dewan of the erstwhile Travancore, took the initiative to extend the railway line to the heart of the city. The terminus was shifted to current location Thiruvananthapuram Central Thampanoor on 1931. The Thiruvananthapuram Central station building was built during the reign of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, the Maharani of Travancore, and inaugurated on 4 November 1931. No bricks were used for the construction of this station building; it was built completely with rock masonry.[4] Thiruvananthapuram was a branch line station but the Maharani built it at par with the counterparts in the major cities of India.The station was built to handle two departures per day in 1931 and had only one platform in the beginning. This station has 5 platforms to handle long and short distance trains and a proposal to build additional 11 platforms in pipeline.Then the number of platforms will increase to 16. The Thiruvananthapuram railway station has two entrances. The main entrance is opposite to Central Bus Station Thiruvananthapuram and eastern entrance is on Power House road.The train care centre functions adjacent to eastern side entrance.Nemom and Kochuveli Railway stations are announced in railway budget as satellite terminals to Thiruvananthapuram Central. Kochuveli satellite terminal has started functioning with trains originating from here. Thiruvananthapuram Central is well equipped with modern security gadgets, and is the first station in the state to install video surveillance. The Networked electronic surveillance system is installed in this Central Station by Railway Protection Force (RPF) for improving the security and for monitoring the movement of passengers arriving at the station.[5]
The station handles over 300,000 passengers daily.[6]
It was announced in railway budget to convert Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station into world-class standards. The foundation stone for expansion and modernisation of station was laid by Former Union Minister for Railways, Lalu Prasad in December 2006. Tenders have been invited for carrying out feasibility studies for this proposed project. More than ₹1,000 million (US$15 million) is needed for first phase of this project.[7]
A new complex of railway station will be built with a built-up area of 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2). All modern facilities including an office and commercial complex is planned here. The proposal to set up a passenger terminal at Nemom is announced in rail budget and yet to begin work. It is estimated that only a consortium would be able to take up expansion project of Thiruvananthapuram Central, since the project is a massive one.[8]
Feasibility study for Chennai-Bangalore-Thiruvananthapuram High speed rail corridor ongoing and is being planned along with other few corridors in country. Thiruvananthapuram railway division is part of Southern Railway Zone of India. Its headquarters is in Thiruvananthapuram. The division was formed along with Bangalore railway division. It was the 53rd division in the country. The division was formed on 2 October 1979 followed by formation of Bangalore railway division. It was the 53rd division in the country.[1]
It has about 625 kilometres (388 mi) of route length in Kerala and Tamil Nadu from Vallathol Nagar to Melappalaiyam (Tirunelveli district) and carries over 1.65 lakh passengers daily.[2] The doubling of track between Kayamkulam- Quilon completed in 1996 and between Quilon-Trivandrum in 2000. Electrification between Ernakulam & Trivandrum via Kottayam and Alleppey completed in 2006. Electrification of Trivandrum - Nagercoil - Tirunelveli and Nagercoil- Kanyakumari completed in 2012. Doubling of Trivandrum - Nagercoil is awaiting sanction from railway ministry. Third and fourth rail line survey of Ernakulam - Thrissur - Shoranur was announced in rail budget. Shabari Rail from Angamali to Erumeli and its extension to Trivandrum via Punalur was also announced in rail budget. Trivandrum-Nagercoil Section[edit]
Total Nagercoil-Trivandrum Section km = 71.05
Line capacity of Trivandrum-Nagercoil Section : 114.1%
Maximum Permissible speed of Trivandrum-Nagercoil Section : 80 km/h
Total Stations =13
Block Station =6
CNC Station = 1
Halt Station =6
Critical Block Section = Eraniel - Nagercoil
Station km = 272.62
Nagercoil - Tirunelveli section[edit]
Total Nagercoil - Tirunelveli Section km = 73.29
Line capacity of Nagercoil - Tirunelveli Section : 110%
Maximum Permissible speed of Nagercoil - Tirunelveli Section : 90 km/h
Total Stations =7
Block Station =5
CNC Station = 0
Halt Station =2
Critical Block Section = Vallioor - Nanguneri
Nagercoil - Kanyakumari Section[edit]
Total Nagercoil - Kanyakumari Section km = 15.51
Line capacity of Nagercoil - Kanyakumari Section : 77%
Maximum Permissible speed of Nagercoil - Kanyakumari Section : 75 km/h
Total Stations =2
Block Station =1
CNC Station = 0
Halt Station =1
Terminal facilities[edit]
Thiruvananthapuram railway division has the credit of building and maintaining highest number of passenger terminals in any railway division within southern railway. Passenger terminals are built at Thiruvananthapuram central, Ernakulam, Nagercoil, Alleppey and Kochuveli. New passenger terminals proposed at Kanyakumari, Nemom and Kottayam. List of railway stations and towns[edit]
The list includes the stations under the Thiruananthapuram railway division and their station category.[3][4]
Category of station No. of stations Names of stations
A-1 Category 3 Ernakulam Junction railway station, Thiruvananthapuram Central , Thrissur railway station
A Category 10 Alappuzha , Ernakulam Town , Aluva, Chengannur , Kanniyakumari , Kayamkulam Junction, Kollam Junction, Kottayam, Nagercoil Junction, Tiruvalla
B Category - -
C Category
(Suburban station) - -
D Category - -
E Category - -
F Category
Halt Station - -
Total - -
Stations closed for Passengers -
A MEMU shed for Kollam was proposed in 2008's Indian Railway Budget. Kollam MEMU CarShed was formally commissioned on 1 December 2013, five years after its completion.[5] Kollam MEMU Shed is the largest MEMU Shed in Kerala, which is equipped with most modern facilities. A new suburban corridor proposed by Railways between Thiruvananthapuram and Haripad/ Chengannur via Kollam, for which MRVC is tasked to conduct study and submit report. The Southern Railway, headquartered at Chennai, Tamil Nadu, is one of the 16 zones of Indian Railways. It is the earliest of the 16 zones of the Indian Railways created in independent India. It was created on 14 April 1951 by merging three state railways, namely, the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway, the South Indian Railway Company, and the Mysore State Railway. The South Indian Railway was originally created in the British colonial times as Great Southern India Railway Co founded in Britain in 1853 and registered in 1859. Its original headquarters was in Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) and was registered as a company in London only in 1890.[2]
Southern Railway has its headquarters in Chennai and has the following six divisions:
Chennai
Madurai
Tiruchirappalli
Salem
Palakkad
Thiruvananthapuram
It covers the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and small portions of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. More than 50 crore passengers travel on the network every year. This zone of the Indian Railways differs from the other zones of India in that its revenue is derived from passengers and not from freight.[3]
Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore, Ernakulam Junction, Thiruvananthapuram Central, Coimbatore Junction, Kozhikode, Thrissur and Madurai Junction are the A1 graded stations under Southern Railway Division. These are the busiest and most revenue-generating stations. Trivandrum Pettah, Trivandrum Kochuveli, Trivandrum Nemom, Ernakulam Town, Erode Junction, Tirunelveli Junction, Aluva, Tiruchirappalli Junction, Shoranur Junction, Salem Junction, Kollam Junction, Palakkad Junction, Katpadi Junction, Mangaluru Junction and Kayamkulam Junction are some of the other major stations. Many of the major stations are being upgraded to
