Ernakulam Junction

Ernakulam Junction (also known as South) is a railway junction and one of the busiest railway stations in Kerala, located in Kochi, India. It is operated by the Southern Railway department of the Indian Railways.It is one of the major stations in Kerala where trains are found to any part of India. Ernakulam Junction and Ernakulam Town are the two major stations in Kochi. Because of the loop structure of the tracks, trains going from the Thrissur side to the Kottayam side via Ernakulam junction have to reverse their directions, whereas those going to the Alappuzha do not face this problem. Many trains originate from here.

It has six platforms and two major entrances. Currently, only five platforms are in use.

First in Kerala

The first ATM to be installed at a railway station in Kerala was Ernakulam junction on May 23, 2002 and the first cyber cafe at a railway station in the State started functioning at Ernakulam Junction from October 6, 2006. Also an integrated surveillance post set was up jointly by the Excise and the Commercial Taxes Department at the Ernakulam South railway station on March 01, 2008 of drugs and illicit liquor. This was first of its kind in Kerala.

Local Name of the Station

Among Kochites, this station is referred to as "Ernakulam South" or simply "South" as it is in the southern part of Ernakulam, to distinguish it from Ernakulam Town which in turn is referred to as (and was officially called for a long time as) "Ernakulam North" or simply "North". The station code for this station, 'ERS' or 'ERN' resp., reflects this.

Important Trains

Some very important trains like H.Nizamuddin - Trivandrum Rajdhani Express pass through this station. It is connected by daily direct trains to H. Nizamuddin/New Dehi (Ernakulam - H.Nizamuddin Mangala Lakshadweep Express, Trivandrum - New Delhi Kerala Express), Chennai (Alleppey-Chennai Express, Chennai Mail), Mumbai(Trivandrum-Mumbai CST Netravati Express), Hyderabad (Sabari Express), Mangalore (Trivandrum-Mangalore Malabar Express and Maveli Express), and Thiruchchirappalli (Ernakulam-Tiruchchi Expres). It is also connected to Guwahati, Patna, Bilaspur, Gorakhpur, Ahmedabad, Gorakhpur, Okha, Ranchi, Howrah, Pune and many other major stations by direct trains.

ee also

*Indian Railways
*Transport in Kochi

External links

[http://www.srailway.com/ The official website of Southern railway]