The new time table of Southern Railway, taking effect from Monday, has provided time-slots for 19 new express trains.
The date of introduction of the new services is to be notified later.
A few passenger trains have been introduced, some services extended and the speed of 22 trains has been increased in the range of 15-45 minutes.
The new services include two fully air-conditioned super fast express trains – Train No. 22631/22632 Chennai Central - Bikaner (weekly) and Train No.22808/22807 Chennai Central – Santragachi (bi-weekly).
Train No.16001/16002 Chennai Central – Palani Express, Train No.16003/16004 Chennai Central – Nagarsol (for Sai Nagar Shirdi) Exp. (weekly), Train No.16183/16184 Chennai Egmore-Thanjavur Exp (Daily), Train No.16618/16617 Coimbatore – Rameswaram Exp. (weekly), Train No.17235/17236 Bangalore City-Nagercoil Exp. (Daily), Train No.16861/16862 Puducherry-Kanyakumari Exp. (weekly) and Train No.17413/17414 Tirupati-Puducherry Exp. (weekly) trains.
In June, Southern Railway had introduced three express trains: 16185/16186 Chennai Egmore - Velankanni (Link) “Velankanni” Exp. (Daily), 16181/16182 Chennai Egmore – Manamadurai ‘Silambu’ Exp. (Bi-weekly) and 16616/16615 Coimbatore - Mannargudi ‘Chemmozhi’ Exp. (Daily).
In departure timing changes, the 16053 Chennai Central-Tirupati Express will leave at 2.10 p.m. instead of 1.50 p.m.; 17311 Chennai Central-Vasco Da Gama Express will leave at 1.50 p.m. instead of 2.10 p.m.; 17313 Chennai Central-Hubli express will leave at 1.50 p.m. instead of 2.10 p.m.; 22860 Chennai Central-Shalimar Express will leave at 4.20 p.m. instead of 4.15 p.m. 12578 Bangalore City-Darbhanga Bagmati Express will leave at 4.20 p.m. instead of 4.15 p.m. and 12661 Chennai Egmore-Shengottai Express will leave Egmore at 8.10 p.m. instead of 8.05 p.m.
The 11064 Mettur Dam/Salem-Chennai Egmore express will arrive at Egmore ten minutes earlier at 4.40 a.m.
The four new passenger trains that figure in the time table (date of introduction to be notified later) are: 56339/56340 Punalur - Kollam Passenger (Daily), 56769/56770 Palani - Tiruchendur Passenger (Daily), 56663/56664 Kozhikode - Thrissur Passenger (Daily) and 56367/56368 Guruvayur - Thrissur Passenger (Daily).
New MEMU services
The new MEMU services are the 66011/66012 Chennai Central - Tirupati (Daily), 66307/66308 Ernakulam – Kollam via Kottayam (6 days a week) 66309/66310 Ernakulam – Kollam via Alappuzha (6 days a week).
Trains being extended are Chennai Egmore - Madurai portion of 16127/16128 Chennai Egmore - Guruvayur (Daily) Exp. to Tuticorin as 16129/16130, 12605/12606 Chennai Egmore - Tiruchchirappalli Pallavan Exp. (Daily) to Karaikudi, 12508/12507 Guwahati – Ernakulam Exp. (Weekly) to Thiruvananthapuram via Ernakulam Town, 12653/12654 Mangalore Central - Tiruchi Exp. (weekly) to Puducherry via Vriddhachalam, Villupuram as 16857/16858 and 12082/12081 Thiruvananthapuram - Kozhikode Jan Shatabdi Exp. (5 days) to Kannur.
Other extensions feature three passenger services (Bangalore City – Nagore (Daily) to Karaikal, Madurai – Kollam (Daily) to Punalur and Madurai - Dindigul (Daily) to Palani), two MEMU services (Ernakulam – Thrissur to Palakkad and Kollam - Nagercoil to Kanyakumari) and one DEMU service (Karaikudi-Manamadurai to Virudunagar).
Among the train services whose frequency is being increased are 22616/22615 Coimbatore - Tirupati Express from tri-weekly to four days a week, 12687/22687/12688/22688 Madurai - Dehradun/Chandigarh Exp. from Weekly to bi-weekly and 12217/12218 Kochuveli - Chandigarh Kerala Sampark Kranti Exp. from weekly to bi-weekly.
The three passenger trains that will upgrade from six-day-schedule to daily service are the 56312 Tirunelveli-Nagercoil, 56325 Nagercoil-Kanyakumari and 56321 Kanyakumari-Tirunelveli trains.
The other important changes are the termination (from a date to be notified later) of the 6177/16178 Chennai Egmore-Tiruchi /Kumbakonam Rockfort express at Tiruchi and shift in the days of operations of the 12692 Sri Satya Sai Prashanti Nilayam-Chennai Central Exp (weekly).
