Railway temporarily drops plan to extend Venad Express to Nilambur: Here's why

Rail passengers were excited when the Railways decided to extend the Thiruvananthapuram-Shoranur Venad Express to Nilambur. However, most recent reports suggest they may have to continue waiting for its implementation, as the meetings and assessments on its possibility did not yield a positive outcome.

The primary reason cited is the lack of platform space to accommodate the Venad Express, which has 22 Linke-Hofmann-Busch (LHB) coaches. Each LHB coach is two meters longer than a standard coach, and its platform height is 840 mm.

Currently, there is not enough space for the train to halt with platform coverage on the Shoranu-Nilambur line. The service can be extended only after the length of the platforms is increased. While the Nilambur station platform was extended a while ago, it still can accommodate only 18 coaches. Four coaches will be beyond the platform, making it tough for passengers to alight and board the train. Venad starts at 5.20 am from Thiruvananthapuram and reaches Shoranur at 12.25 pm. The return starts at 2.35 pm from Shoranur. 

Timing of other trains
To extend Venad to Nilambur, the schedules of other trains will also have to be adjusted. This can be considered only after new crossing stations are completed.

The cleaning and filling of water can be done at Shoranur itself. The Railways also claims many other technical formalities and constructions must be done before extending Vendad to Nilambur.
Meanwhile, the trial run of the Ernakulam-Shoranur night-time memu service was completed recently. It will start from Nilambur at 3 pm and reach Shoranur at 4.15 pm. It will start at 9.45 pm from Shoranur and reach Nilambur at 11 pm.