Kovai Express - Misplaced Pages

Train in India

Kovai Superfast Express

Overview

Service type

Express

Locale

Tamil Nadu

First service

14 April 1977; 47 years ago (1977-04-14)

Current operator(s)

Southern Railway zone

Route

Termini

Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station (MAS)
Coimbatore Junction (CBE)

Stops

Distance travelled

502 km (312 mi)

Average journey time

7 hours 55 minutes

Service frequency

Daily

Train number(s)

12675 / 12676

On-board services

Class(es)

AC Chair Car, Second Class Sitting, General Unreserved

Seating arrangements

Yes

Sleeping arrangements

Catering facilities

Available

Observation facilities

Large windows

Technical

Rolling stock

LHB coach

Track gauge

1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in)

Operating speed

66 km/h (41 mph) average with halts

Route map

The 12675 / 12676 Kovai Express is a daily superfast express train on Indian Railways, running between Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station and Coimbatore Junction. The train made its inaugural run on 14 April 1977 and was one of the fastest Express trains in India, with an average speed of 65 km/h including stops . It is also one of the most prestigious trains of Southern Railway.

Name

The train is named after Coimbatore, which is also known as Kovai.

Service

This train is an all day, day time superfast and has a Chair Car (Coach) seating arrangement with air-conditioned and non-air conditioned coaches and Pantry car. The 12679/12680 Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Chennai Central Railway Station - Coimbatore Junction Intercity Superfast Express is its opposite route partner.

Route and stations

Kovai Express, or popularly referred to as Kovai, connects Tamil Nadu's state capital Chennai and its second largest city Coimbatore, a major textile, educational and engineering center. This train covers 6 corporation cities out of 12 in the state: Chennai, Vellore, Salem, Erode, Tiruppur and Coimbatore. The route covers most of the major industrial hubs in the north west part of Tamil Nadu. En route, starting from Coimbatore, it covers important towns of Tirupur, an international hosiery goods exporting town, Erode, a principle agricultural and major Industrial town, Salem which is a major steel and mineral town, Morappur, a station that serves passengers from Dharmapuri and surrounding areas, major leather goods exporting centers Ambur, Vaniyambadi, Arakkonam Junction The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), INS Rajali Naval Air Station and Vellore-Katpadi which has both a medical center a university.

Rake

Kovai Express contains a total number of 22 LHB coach. Previously it has a single dedicated rake unit but now its rakes are being shared with Brindhavan Express. Its rakes are maintained at GSN yard, Bainbridge, Chennai. The current composition is as follows:

EOG

D10

D11

D12

EOG

Historic information

The old number was 75/76, later changed in the 1980s to 2675/2676, as per new four-digit format numbering system later adopted by the Indian Railways. From December 2011 onwards 5-digit train number system was introduced all over India and accordingly Kovai express train number was again changed as 12675/12676. In 1978 it was pulled by a Diesel Engine with Kovai Express boldly written on it. It used to start from Chennai at 6 A.M and its next stop was Katpadi arriving at 7.43 A.M. Other stops at that time was Jolarpet, Salem, Erode, Tiruppur and Coimbatore. It used to reach Cbe at 2 p.m. and start back at 2.20 p.m. Now Shatabdi Express has taken over the Kovai express timings.

Time table

MAS 》CBE 12675

Station code	Station name	Arrival	Departure
MAS	Chennai Central	SRC	06:10
AJJ	Arakkonam Jn	07:08	07:10
WJR	Walajah Road Jn	07:38	07:40
KPD	Katpadi Jn	08:03	08:05
AB	Ambur	08:43	08:45
JTJ	Jolarpettai	09:23	09:25
MAP	Morappur	10:09	10:10
SA	Salem Jn	11:07	11:10
ED	Erode Jn	12:07	12:10
TUP	Tiruppur	12:53	12:55
CBE	Coimbatore Jn	14:05	DSTN

CBE 》MAS 12676

Station code	Station name	Arrival	Departure
CBE	Coimbatore Jn	SRC	15:15
TUP	Tiruppur	15:58	16:00
ED	Erode Jn	16:47	16:50
SA	Salem Jn	17:43	17:45
MAP	Morappur	18:33	18:35
JTJ	Jolarpettai	19:23	19:25
AB	Ambur	19:54	19:55
KPD	Katpadi Jn	20:33	20:35
WJR	Walajah Road Jn	20:54	20:55
AJJ	Arakkonam	21:23	21:25
PER	Perambur	22:13	22:15
MAS	Chennai Central	22:50	DSTN

References

"The changing face of steel city". The Hindu. The Hindu = 2011. 22 January 2011.
The Hindu: Growth sets Ambur leather sector shining
Indian Express : Vellore Medical experts

External links

Kovai Express Route

Railways in Southern India

Authority

Railway companies

Defunct	East Coast State Railway Hyderabad–Godavari Valley Railways Madras Railway Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway Mysore State Railway Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway South Indian Railway Company Southern Mahratta Railway

Zones and divisions

East Coast	Waltair
South Central	Guntakal Guntur Hyderabad Secunderabad Vijayawada
Southern	Chennai Madurai Palakkad Salem Thiruvananthapuram Tiruchirappalli
South Western	Bangalore Hubli Mysore

Workshops

Depots

Electric Loco	Arakkonam Erode Guntakal Kazipet Krishnarajapuram Lallaguda Royapuram Vijayawada Visakhapatnam
Diesel Loco	Coonoor Erode Ernakulam Golden Rock Gooty Guntakal Hubli Kazipet Krishnarajapuram Tondiarpet Vijayawada Visakhapatnam
Steam Loco	Coonoor
Multiple Unit	Avadi Bangalore Kollam Palakkad Tambaram Velachery Vijayawada

Lines

Main	Chennai–Bangalore Chennai–Howrah Chennai–Gudur Gudur–Vijayawada Vijayawada–Visakhapatnam Visakhapatnam–Khurda Road Chennai–New Delhi Chennai–Mumbai Renigunta–Guntakal Guntakal–Solapur
Broad Gauge	Bangalore–Hassan Bangalore–Hubli Bangalore–Mysore Bhimavaram–Narasapur Chamarajanagar–Mysore Chennai–Thanjavur Cochin–Shoranur Ernakulam–Kayamkulam Ernakulam–Kottayam–Kayamkulam Erode–Tiruchirappalli Gudivada–Machilipatnam Gudur–Renigunta Guntakal–Vasco da Gama Guntur–Tenali Guntur–Vijayawada Jolarpettai–Shoranur Kanyakumari–Thiruvananthapuram Kazipet–Vijayawada Konkan Railway Kirandul–Kothavalasa Kollam–Sengottai Kollam–Thiruvananthapuram Kothapalli–Manoharabad Madurai–Tirunelveli Manamadurai–Rameswaram Manamadurai–Virudhunagar Mangalore–Mysore Mangalore–Shoranur Motumarri–Vishnupuram Nagercoil–Tirunelveli Nallapadu–Nandyal Nallapadu–Pagidipalli Nandyal–Guntakal Nandyal–Yerraguntla Nidadavolu–Vijayawada Nilambur–Shoranur Palakkad–Pollachi Peddapalli–Nizamabad Pune–Londa Samalkot–Kakinada Secunderabad–Dhone Secunderabad–Manmad Secunderabad–Nagpur Tenali–Repalle Tiruchirappalli–Viluppuram
Mountain	Nilgiri Mountain Railway
Defunct	Cochin State Forest Tramway Kundala Valley Railway Nilambur–Nanjangud line Sabarimala Railway

Passenger trains

Stations

Major	Arakkonam Jn. Chengalpattu Jn. Bengaluru KSR Bengaluru Yesvantpur Jn. Chennai Avadi Chennai Central Chennai Egmore Tambaram Coimbatore Jn. Ernakulam Jn. Hyderabad Hyderabad Deccan Kacheguda Secunderabad Jn. Katpadi Jn. Kollam Jn. Kozhikode Madurai Jn. Mysuru Jn. Thiruvananthapuram Central Thrissur Tirupati Tiruvallur Vijayawada Jn. Visakhapatnam Jn.

Suburban and metro

Operational

Suburban	Chennai Suburban Chennai MRTS Hyderabad MMTS
Metro	Chennai Metro Kochi Metro Hyderabad Metro Namma Metro

Proposed