Mangaluru–Chennai Mail

The 12601 / 12602 Mangaluru CentralÃ¢ÂÂMGR Chennai Central Mail is a Superfast Mail daily train operated by the Indian Railways belonging to Southern Railway zone that runs between Chennai Central (Madras) of Tamil Nadu and Mangaluru Central of Karnataka in India. It is one of the oldest train still being operated by Indian Railways. Earlier it ran from Madras Royapuram to Kozhikode (Calicut). When the line was extended up to Mangaluru, it ran up to Mangaluru Central from Royapuram Chennai. When Madras Central was built, the train's terminus was changed to Chennai Central from Royapuram and it ran as the Madras Central - Mangaluru Central Malabar Express. Till 1907, it ran as Malabar Express, after that its name was changed to Chennai/Mangaluru Mail. It was one of the prestigious train in Indian Railways. It runs always full by having more stoppages in northern Kerala beginning from Palakkad Junction to Kasaragod. It also has nine stoppages at Tamilnadu and it does not have any other stoppages in Karnataka except Mangaluru Central.

History

Originally, It was introduced as Mangalore - Madras Malabar Express on July 1, 1867, which had train number 1/2 and as Mangalore/Chennai Mail from 1887. It was one single Composite Train called as Ã¢ÂÂ01UP/02DOWN MailÃ¢ÂÂ from Madras to Old Coimbatore (Now Podanur) and from there to Chaliyam (now Beypore in Calicut). Its inaugural run was on July 1st 1867. It did not have a name until 1887. The train was split into the Nilgiri Express in 1864 and the Malabar Mail in 1867. The Kerala Mainline was further extended to Kumbla (near Mangaluru) which was completed on July 3rd 1907. Because of this the Malabar Mail was renamed into the Mangalore Mail and The present day Malabar Express was introduced as an altogether new train from Mangalore to Cochin Harbour Terminus in 1963. Later when the metre gauge from Ernakulam to Kollam was converted to broad gauge, this train was extended to Thiruvananthapuram in 1976 bearing numbers 16629/30 now. At present Chennai-Mangalore central mail runs with train numbers 12601/12602. It was the first-ever train to enter Kerala with electric locomotive.