The Rameswaram (Boat Mail) Express, formerly known as the Boat Mail or Indo-Ceylon Express, is an express train connecting

Rameswaram Rameswaram (; also transliterated as Ramesvaram, Rameshwaram) is a municipality in the Ramanathapuram district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is on Pamban Island separated from mainland India by the Pamban channel and is about from ...

with the state capital

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

via

Tambaram Tambaram is a city located within the Chennai Metropolitan Area in the Indian State of Tamil Nadu. The city is governed by Tambaram City Municipal Corporation. Etymology Tambaram is an ancient town referred to as Taamapuram in an inscrip ...

, Chengalpet, Melmaruvattur,

Viluppuram Viluppuram, Villupuram, or Vizhuppuram () is a municipality and the administrative headquarters of Viluppuram district. Located south west of a Tiruvannamalai and north west of Cuddalore null The town serves as a major and largest railway ...

, Cuddalore port,

Chidambaram Chidambaram is a major town and municipality in Cuddalore district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on the banks of the Vellar River where it meets the Bay of Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Chidambaram taluk. The town is believed to b ...

, Sirkazhi,

Mayiladuthurai Mayiladuthurai (formerly known as Mayavaram or Mayuram) is a :ta:சிறப்பு நிலை நகராட்சிகள், Special Grade Municipality and district headquarters of Mayiladuthurai district in Tamil Nadu, India. The town ...

Tanjore Thanjavur (), also known as Thanjai, previously known as Tanjore,#Pletcher, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the 12th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian c ...

, Tiruchchirappalli,

Pudukkottai Pudukkottai Municipal Corporation is the administrative headquarters of Pudukkottai district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the oldest Heritage city located on the banks of the Vellar River. It has been ruled, at different t ...

Karaikudi Karaikudi is the largest city of Sivaganga district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the centre of the Karaikudi Metropolitan Area, the 21st largest urban Agglomeration of Tamil Nadu based on 2011 census data. It is part of the area ...

Sivagangai Sivaganga () is the City and headquarters of the Sivaganga district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is known for the 16th-century Sivagangai Fort, located in City Centre. Inside the fort, the Rajarajeshwari Amman Temple features many orn ...

, Manamadurai, Paramakkudi and

Ramanathapuram Ramanathapuram (), also known as Ramnad, is a city Municipal Corporation in Ramanathapuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of Ramanathapuram district and the second largest town (by population) ...

. In the 20th century, it operated as a combined

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

- steamer

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

service between India and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, linking

and

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

. Initially, the service utilized a rail-to-sea operation, which later evolved into a rail-sea-rail operation.http://www.irfca.org/faq/faq-seltrain.html Famous Trains Passengers could purchase a single ticket for the entire journey from Chennai to Colombo. After Indian independence, the ferry service was discontinued and the train operated under the name Dhanushkodi Express from Chennai Egmore to Dhanushkodi. Following the destruction of Dhanushkodi in the cyclone of 1964, the train service was halted. It now runs from Chennai Egmore to

via Villuppuram,

Kumbakonam Kumbakonam (formerly spelt as Coombaconum or Combaconum), or Kudanthai, is a city municipal corporation in the Thanjavur district in the States of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located from Thanjavur and from Chennai and is the hea ...

, Tiruchchirappalli,

, Karaikkudi,

Devakottai Devakottai is a first-grade municipality in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. Located in the Sivaganga district, the town is situated close to the Karaikudi, near Rameswaram National Highway Road (NH-210). It is one of the major cities comes unde ...

, Manamadurai, Paramakkudi,

, Mandapam, and Pamban.

History

The train's name commemorates the 19th-century mail service between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). It is one of the top prestigious trains of Indian Railways, as it completed 100 years of service in 2014. Before the cyclone, the train was running as a metre-gauge train from to via , , Cuddalore Port Junction, , , , ,

, ,

, , and

. Due to the conversion of metre gauge to broad gauge, the train was stopped. After the completion of the broad-gauge track in the Chennai–Madurai–Rameswaram line, the train is resumed via . Later the conversion of the Tiruchirappalli–Manamadurai line, this train is rerouted via that route which skips Madurai. Finally, the Mayiladuthurai to Thanjavur line is converted to broad gauge once again this train is rerouted via Thanjavur which is the present route of Boat Mail Express.

Tuticorin–Colombo era

The train was inaugurated on January 1, 1880. The railway portion of the route within India was from Madras (

) to

Tuticorin Thoothukudi (formerly called Tuticorin) is a port industrial city in Thoothukudi district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It lies on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. The city is capital and headquarters of the district. ...

. At Tuticorin, passengers embarked on the boat mail steamer to

in Ceylon. The train took 21 hours and 50 minutes for the journey from Madras to Tuticorin. The Boat Mail was one of the early trains to be given vestibuled carriages, in 1898. Presently this train route is running as Pearl City Express.

Dhanushkodi–Talaimannar era

In 1914, after the

Pamban bridge Pamban Bridge (, romanised: ''pāmban'') was a railway bridge that connected the town of Rameswaram on Pamban Island to Mandapam on mainland India. Opened on 24 February 1914, it was India's first sea bridge, and was the longest sea bridge in ...

was built, the train's route changed and it went from Madras to

Dhanushkodi Dhanushkodi is an abandoned town at the south-eastern tip of Pamban Island of the state of Tamil Nadu in India. It is south-east of Pamban and is about west of Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. The town was destroyed during the 1964 Rameswaram cy ...

. A much shorter ferry service then took the passengers to

Talaimannar Talaimannar (; ) is a settlement in Sri Lanka located on the northwestern coast of Mannar Island. Transport Sri Lanka's northern railway line was destroyed, disrupted or neglected during the 30-year Sri Lankan civil war, which ended in May 2009 ...

in Ceylon, from where another train went to Colombo. The long ferry journey was considerably shorter than the long Tuticorin-Colombo route. Since the 1930s, this train has been rerouted from its original route via Madurai Junction to its present-day route due to the opening of the Trichinopoly - Manamadurai railway route which is shorter distance in comparison with its original route which leads to reduction in overall travel time.

Post cyclone

In 1964, a passenger train was washed into the sea by huge waves during the 1964 cyclone, while it was near Dhanushkodi. The railway tracks and the pier at Dhanushkodi were also destroyed. Following this, the Indian portion of the train service now only operates up to

, while the ferry service to

has restarted from Rameswaram has been discontinued from 1984 due to

Tamil Eelam Tamil Eelam (, ''tamiḻ īḻam''; generally rendered outside Tamil-speaking areas as தமிழ் ஈழம்) is a proposed independence, independent sovereign state, state that many Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lan ...

issue. It now runs between and via , , , , , , , , , , , Devakottai Road, Kallal, , , and in the Indian end where as it runs as Colombo - Thalaimannar Night Mail express at the Sri Lankan end.

Schedule

* 16751 – Starts from Chennai Egmore daily at 19:15 IST and reaches Rameswaram the next day at 08:10 AM IST * 16752 – Leaves Rameswaram every day at 17:25 IST and reaches Chennai Egmore the next morning 07:25 AM IST

Traction

The Rameswaram to Tiruchchirappalli section is hauled by a WDM-3A/ WDG-3A Diesel locomotive and Tiruchchirappalli to Chennai Egmore by a

WAP-4 The Indian locomotive class WAP-4 is a class of 25 kV AC electric locomotives that was developed in 1993 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), AC Current (A), Passenger traffic (P) l ...

electric loco. The same locomotive types are used on the return journey. Between Tiruchchirappalli Junction and , this train achieves a maximum speed of 110 km/h.

Coach composition

The train consists of 23 coaches.It shares its rakes with the Sethu Superfast Express, operates daily and covers a distance of . It includes one AC first class cum 2nd AC (HA), AC 2 tier (A), AC 3 tier (B), sleeper class (SL), unreserved general sitting coach (GS), and end on generators (SLRD). The Train Will Shares Its Rake With Madurai Thiruvananthapuram Amritha Express After Extension And Inauguration Of New Pamban Bridge.

Alternative proposals

At one time the

South Indian Railway The South Indian Railway Company operated a number of gauge lines in South India from 1874 to 1951. History The Great Southern of India Railway Company was established with its headquarters in England in 1853. The Carnatic Railway Company wa ...

considered constructing a bridge long across the shallow waters and sand shoals and reefs known as Ram Setu between

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

. However, this plan was shelved when

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

broke out.

Locomotive

* Rameswaram (Boat Mail) Express Running Chennai to Trichy with

locomotive from

Erode Erode (; īrōṭu), is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Kaveri river and is surrounded by the Western Ghats. Erode is the seventh largest urban agglomeration in Tamil Nadu. It is the administrativ ...

Arakkonam Arakkonam () is a railway town in the Ranipet district, state of Tamil Nadu. Included within the Chennai metropolitan area, Chennai Metropolitan Area since 2022, Arakkonam is a major suburb of the state capital city Chennai, with a population ...

electric shed * Trichy - Rameswaram WDM-3A, WDG-3A locomotive from Diesel Loco Shed, Golden Rock trains first came to India and Sri Lanka in the 1850s.

References

{{International trains from India History of transport in Sri Lanka Ferry transport in Sri Lanka Defunct trains in India Ferry transport in India Named passenger trains of Sri Lanka Named passenger trains of India Transport in Chennai Transport in Rameswaram Rail transport in Tamil Nadu Railway services introduced in 1914 Express trains in India