Night train route
Sethu Express (Boat Mail)
Chennai → Rameswaram · India
- Distance
- 603 km
- Fastest time
- 9 h 40 min
- Top speed
- 110 km/h
- Operator
- Indian Railways (Southern Railway)
- Train
- ICF sleeper rake behind WAP-4 electric
- Countries
- India
- In service since
- 1914
- Runs
- 1× nightly each way
Heir to the 1914 Boat Mail that fed the Ceylon ferry, it now reaches Rameswaram island over India’s first vertical-lift sea bridge, opened 2025.
The Boat Mail began running south from Madras in 1914, feeding steamers that crossed the Palk Strait to Ceylon, and today’s Sethu Express carries the pilgrimage overnight to Rameswaram. Since April 2025 it has crossed the new 2.07 km Pamban bridge, India’s first vertical-lift sea span, whose 72.5 m section rises in minutes to let ships pass. On the island approach, waves break directly beneath the rails.
Along the way
- Tiruchirappalli’s Rockfort skyline
- Chettinad mansion country at Karaikudi
- Ramanathapuram coastal scrub
- Pamban vertical-lift bridge crossing
- Ramanathaswamy temple corridors
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