A primary list of private trains to be operated in the country has been prepared. A total of 152 trains in 12 clusters under various railway divisions are included in the list. Among them, four trains are in Kerala which comes under Chennai cluster. Three of them start services from Kerala.
Kochuveli-Lumding (Assam), Kochuveli-Ernakulam, Ernakulam-Kanyakumari and Chennai-Mangaluru are the four private train services. Among them, Ernakulam-Kanyakumari is a daily train and others conduct service only once and thrice in a week. They have very few stops. As the schedule is fixed already, they are likely to start service soon.
The Railways expects private investment worth Rs 30,000 crore through privatization. Delhi-Lucknow and Ahmedabad-Mumbai are the trains privatised on a trial basis. As they were found to be profitable, railway sector was classified into 12 clusters and private train routes were identified.
There are 28 private trains in Chennai cluster. Kochuveli-Lumding train conducts three services per week. It starts from Kochuveli on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and returns from Lumding on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The train will have only 18 stops between Kochuveli and Lumding. Lumding is the second major station in Assam after Guwahati.
Kochuveli-Ernakulam train service is available thrice a week. It starts from Kochuveli on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7.50 pm and reaches Ernakulam at 11.30 pm. It returns from Ernakulam on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 6.45 am and reaches Kochuveli at 10.25 am. The train stops at Kollam and Kottayam only.
Kanyakumari-Ernakulam train has daily service. It starts from Kanyakumari at 6 am and reaches Ernakulam at 12 pm. It returns from Ernakulam at 2 pm and reaches Kanyakumari by 8.30 pm. Kollam and Kottayam are its only stops.
Chennai-Mangaluru train starts from Chennai every Tuesday at 7.10 pm and reaches Mangaluru by 3.50 pm next day. Then it returns from Mangaluru on every Wednesday by 5.05 pm and reaches Chennai next morning at 8.30 am. The train has only 8 stops including Palakkad and Kozhikode.
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