The Tamil Nadu Express or T.N. Express is a passenger train route of the Indian Railways. The train was first started on 7 August 1976 by then Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi as a bi-weekly was the first State named train of the south. It runs between Chennai (Chennai Central) and New Delhi (New Delhi railway station) In 1976 it was a tri weekly train, then made four times a week just before the 1982 Asias and then converted to a daily train by Madhav Rao Scindia in June 1988 and who added Gwalior to the stoppages. Numbered 12621/12622 this train belongs to the superfast category of Indian Railways.
The train numbered 121/122 when it was introduced. It started off with RED-CREAM livery (a la old style Rajdhanis), briefly switched to GREEN-YELLOW (like present day Garib Raths) before falling in line with the REGULATION BLUE.
When it was a non-daily train it shared time slots with AP Express and KK Express. Yes the KK express, when introduced a couple of months later, was the KERALA-KARNATAKA EXPRESS. The train from Delhi used to split at Katpadi or Jolarpettai and one portion used to go to Bangalore and the other to Trivandrum (now called Thiruvanthapuram). Similarly the 2 portions used to combine at one of these stations and run to New Delhi. Later on all of them were made dailies with separate time slots.
The First Superfast to connect the Southern Metro with the state capital the train beat the record of GT Express which held the superfast train status of the South that time and fastest to reach New Delhi. But the timings weren't suitable for Delhi travelers as it followed the timings similar to Rajdhani of today leaving Chennai Early morning to reach New Delhi the next afternoon-the 1st train to run Chennai-Vijayawada non-stop. Later the train became daily and timings altered to leave Chennai in evening.
13 coaches were initially there including luggage & guard van. 2 coaches of Chair Car were there. Rest were sleepers and had one Pantry Car. the Guard, TTE, attendants were all SR staff in the beginning. All staff used to come from there and travel back the next day.
The Chair Car got badly damaged near Kazipet loopline due to excess speed on that travel at night and thereafter CC were discontinued.
The real problem started when the coaches were increased to 18+ and with a single engine, it could not cover up the terrains near ET and was regularly getting late by 2– 3 hours while coming to New Delhi. during Mr George Fernandes as Railway Minister, the concept of twin engine started and they increased the time to 33 hours. Later on they changed the timings of the train to night timings.
All along GT has been chugging at 36 hours and had no change in its speed etc. it had also CC and a partial CC coach whereas TN had 2 full CC coaches. GT had more changes in timing, 11am, 4pm, 645pm etc.
Another tidbit is GT was never cancelled come rain or shine, but TN used to be cancelled.(may be due to shortage of rakes at that time).
When introduced this was the train with the maximum coaches in the Southern Territory. So much that Chennai Central could accommodate it only on PF-1. Also jokes were said to have appeared in magazines that it is necessary to walk till gummidipoondi to board this train(So much for the length of about 20 coaches)
The important feature that exists even today is the train that leaves Chennai and the counterpart that leaves New Delhi on same day meet at the mid-point of Nagpur. Nagpur lies exactly in the middle of NDLS & MAS at around 1090 km from both cities (16 hrs of travel for both). This has been said to have been existing ever since the shift from morning to evening of this train. GT lost this feature when the Chennai timings shifted to 4:30PM in evening from 11PM(Not sure) and later transferred to 7:30Pm departure
Though the name is Tamil Nadu Express, the train has only one stop at Tamil Nadu i.e., CHENNAI.
Contents |
This train at present leaves New Delhi at 22:30 hrs to reach Chennai / MAS at 07:10 on the 2nd day morning.On return this train leaves Chennai every evening at 22:00 hrs to reach New Delhi at 07:00 on the 2nd day morning. It covers a distance of 2184 km in about 33 hours at an average of 67 km/h (42 mph). When introduced in 1976, the running time of the train used to be 29 hrs and 50 minutes. It was introduced as a 14 coach train running with one WDM2 (ALCO derived) loco. In 1979 it was converted into a 21 coach train, headed by 2 WDM2 locos and then sometime after year 2000 converted to a 24 coach train - with 6AC coaches.
| Station name | Station code | Arrives | Departs | Halts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Delhi | NDLS | Source | 22:30 | |
| Agra Cantt. | AGC | 01:07 | 01:10 | 3 min |
| Gwalior Junction | GWL | 02:36 | 02:39 | 3 min |
| Jhansi Junction | JHS | 04:00 | 04:12 | 12 min |
| Bhopal Junction | BPL | 07:55 | 08:00 | 5 min |
| Itarsi Junction | ET | 09:50 | 09:53 | 3 min |
| Nagpur Junction | NGP | 14:15 | 14:30 | 15 min |
| Balharshah Junction | BPQ | 17:25 | 17:35 | 10 min |
| Warangal | WL | 20:48 | 20:50 | 2 min |
| Vijaywada Junction | BZA | 00;15 | 00:25 | 10 min |
| Chennai Central | MAS | 07:10 | Destination |
This train runs via Vijayawada, Warangal, Ballarshah, Nagpur, Itarsi, Bhopal, Jhansi, Gwalior, Agra Cantt and Delhi Hazrat Nizamuddin to reach New Delhi station.
This train is a very demanded train and gets about 24 coach rake generally comprising 6 AC coaches, 13 Sleeper class coaches, pantry car, two general unreserved second class coaches and two SLRs.