From May 1, Coimbatore will see two new trains passing through the city with four destinations. In addition, one of these trains brings Linke Holfmann Busch (LHB) coaches for the first time to Coimbatore. Both the trains were announced in the previous railway budget and included in the last railway time table.
Yesvantpur — Kochuveli — Yesvantpur Weekly AC Express (Train No 16561/62) will commence its maiden run from Yesvantpur (satellite station for Bangalore) on May 2 (Thursday) evening at 15.25 hours to reach Coimbatore at 22.40 hours the same night and reach Kochuveli (Satellite station for Thiruvananthapuram) the next day at 6.50 hours.
In the return direction, the train will leave Kochuveli on May 3 (Friday) at 12.50 hours and reach Coimbatore at 21.10 hours and reach Yesvantpur at 4.30 hours on Saturdays.
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This will bring an end to the disappointment of frequent rail commuters in securing a berth in the trains that pass through Coimbatore and going toward Bangalore because of the minimum quota of seats for Coimbatore at least during the weekends.
The train will have one full AC coach with 18 berths, four AC two-tier coaches with 174 berths and nine AC three tier coaches with 576 berths.
The train also provides an additional overnight connectivity to Thiruvananthapuram.
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Yet another speciality of this train is that the coaches i.e., the rakes are Linke Holfmann Busch (LHB) coaches and will be seen in Coimbatore for the first time. These coaches are manufactured at Rail Coach Factory’s (RCF) Kapurthala plant. The speciality of these coaches is that they are designed to run at 160 km per hour speed and more and have high passenger capacity.
They are anti-telescopic in nature, and do not turn over, climb or coil over each other in the unfortunate event of collision or derailment. The coaches are made of stainless steel and the interiors are done up with aluminium alloy making them lighter in weight when compared to conventional coaches. The air-conditioning system in these coaches is micro processor-controlled to maintain the temperature at required levels. They have lesser noise range of 60 decibels while conventional coaches have 100 decibels.
The other train is 22630/22629 Tirunelveli — Dadar — Tirunelveli Weekly Express from Tirunelveli on Wednesdays and from Dadar on Fridays.
From Dadar, the train will leave at 20.40 hours on Fridays, reach Coimbatore on Saturdays at 19.40 hours and halt at Tirunelveli at 04.00 a.m. on Sundays. This provides a convenient Dadar-Coimbatore-Tirunelveli weekend train. In the return direction, the train would depart Tirunelveli on Wednesdays at 7.10 hours and reach Coimbatore at 15.10 hours and reach Dadar at 15.10 hours the next day i.e., on Thursdays.
The train provides connectivity with Northern Kerala, Mangalore, Madgaon and has one AC two-tier, one AC three-tier and six second class coaches besides six unreserved coaches. Reservation for both the trains have begun.