Chennai Egmore–Karaikal Kamban Express

The Chennai Egmore–Karaikal Kamban Express is an Express train belonging to Southern Railway zone that runs between Chennai Egmore and Karaikal in India. It is currently being operated with 16175/16176 train numbers on a daily basis.

History
During meter gauge services, this train ran as a regular express train from karaikudi to chennai via thiruthuraipoondi, tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Nagore, karaikal, thirunallaru, mayladuthurai, villupuram in the name of kamban express. This train got its name kamban express because one of the famous tamil poet kamban's tomb is situated at nattarasan kottai near karaikudi and kambar birth is located at thiruvezhumbur near kuthalam, as this train passes through these two important places in the history of kamban, so this train got its name as kamban express. Later during 1989, the peralam karaikal line closed for train service, so this train is attached with a slip coaches dedicated for Nagore while the remaining rakes of the express train has been sent to karaikudi via tiruthuraipoondi. During those times, this train is numbered as 6175/76. After the conversion to broad-gauge of all railway lines, except the thiruvarur karaikudi section, all the other meter gauge railway tracks are converted to broad gauge around 2010 itself. But the thiruvarur karaikudi section underwent gauge conversion during 2013 only. In this intermediate period(2010), the kamban express was allocated to run between karaikal to chennai egmore via nagore, thiruvarur, mayiladuthurai, villupuram which is its old slip coach route and a new slip coach route from nagapattinam to velankanni as velankanni express. Around 2019 gauge conversion of the thiruvarur karaikudi section is completed and opened for passenger traffic and the peralam karaikal line also underwent reconstruction and gauge conversion process and it is expected to be completed by 2025. Now railways plans to reoperate this train to its very old route via chennai egmore, villupuram, mayiladuthurai, peralam, thirunallaru, karaikal, thiruvarur, thiruthuraipoondi, karaikudi after the gauge conversion completes on the peralam karaikal section in order not to eliminate and avoid any stoppages for this train.

Service
The 16175/Chennai Egmore–Karaikal Kamban Express has an average speed of 42 km/h and covers 361 km in 7h 50m. The 16176/Karaikal–Chennai Egmore Kambam Express has an average speed of 44 km/h and covers 361 km in 7h 45m.

Route and halts
The important halts of the train are:


 * Chennai Egmore
 * Tambaram
 * Chengalpattu Junction
 * Viluppuram Junction
 * Cuddalore Port Junction
 * Sirkazhi
 * Mayiladuthurai Junction
 * Peralam Junction
 * Thiruvarur Junction
 * Nagapattinam Junction
 * Karaikal

Coach composition
The train has standard ICF rakes with a maximum speed of 110 km/h. The train consists of 23 coaches:


 * 1 AC II Tier
 * 2 AC III Tier
 * 13 Sleeper coaches
 * 5 General Unreserved
 * 2 Seating cum Luggage Rake

Traction
Both trains are hauled by a Royapuram Loco Shed-based WAP-7 electric locomotive from Chennai to Karaikal and vice versa.

Rake sharing
The train shares its rake with 16187/16188 Tea Garden Express and 56385/56386 Ernakulam–Kottayam Passenger. Till 2020, it ran with link express coaches bound Velankanni which will be attached and detached at Nagappattinam. From there, both the trains reaches their destination as single trains.

Now the link train service to Velankanni was discontinued permanently, and it runs as a single train from Chennai to Karaikal and vice versa. It also shares its rakes with 16187/88 Karaikal - Ernakulam Junction Tea Garden Express.

Direction reversal
The train reverses its direction once:


 * Thiruvarur Junction