King of overtakes & crossings crunches Chingavanam
513 views · Published 7 January 2014 · 0:56 · Indexed 10 November 2026
Channel: Roji Railways · 2014 · Travel & Events
Location:Chingavanam railway station,7KM away from Kottayam and 10KM more to Changanassery,Kerala. Time:26th December 2013 12:44 ED WAP4 22370 hauled 24 coach 12626 Newdelhi-Trivandrum Central Kerala Superfast Express accelerates past 66300 Kollam-Ernakulam MEMU halting at Chingavanam for crossing. Travel Time: 51h 5m 39 halts Distance: 3034 km Avg Speed: 59 km/hr Crosses 444 intermediate stations during journey. Kerala Express is called King of Overtakes because it overtakes almost every train in its route except for Rajdhanis and Shatabdhis. It is a daily train that covers a distance of 3,036 kilometers when it runs from New Delhi to Trivandrum with 40 stops at an average speed of 59 km/h.It is the longest running daily Superfast train in India and also holds the record for the longest electric engine hauled train between New Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram Central. It was introduced in the year 1976 as Kerala-Karnataka Express (KK Express) starting from New Delhi to Trivandrum and Bangalore, with bifurcation at Jolarpettai Jn. In 1980, it was split into two trains, Kerala Express and Karnataka Express with Kerala Express again split at Palghat Jn and one of the portions diverted to Mangalore. It overlapped with the Jayanti Janata which bifurcated at Shoranur with one part of the train going to Cochin Harbour and the other to Mangalore. Later, these two trains were merged to form the Kerala Mangala Exp. In 1990, after a separate train to Mangalore was introduced, it began to run along its present route. It was a non daily train initially and had shared the same time slot with the Tamil Nadu Express, Andhra Pradesh Express and the Karnataka Express. However, after its conversion into a daily train it received its own time slot.
