Sri Ganganagar–Tiruchirappalli Humsafar Express

The 22497 / 22498 Sri Ganganagar – Tiruchchirapali Humsafar Express is a superfast express train of the Indian Railways connecting Sri Ganganagar to Tiruchirappalli, providing connectivity to Rajasthan from Central Tamil Nadu. It is the 4th Humsafar Express train which is introduced in the Humsafar Express Series. It is currently being operated with the train numbers 22497/22498 on a weekly basis. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, it ran as a special service which is numbered as 02497/02498.

Service


It averages 53 km/h as 22497/Sri Ganganagar - Tiruchchirappalli Humsafar Express starts on Tuesday and covering 3116 km in 58h 25m and 54 km/h as 22498/Tiruchchirapalli - Sriganganagar HumSafar Express starts on Thursday covering 3114 km in 57h 55m. The rakes have primary maintenance at Sri Ganganagar and the rakes also have secondary maintenance at Tiruchirappalli.

Timings
22497 - leaves Shri Ganganagar Jn every Tuesday at 2:00 PM and reach Tiruchchirappalli Junction on Thursday at 11:20 AM IST

22498 - Leaves Tiruchchirappalli Junction Every Friday and reach Shri Ganganagar Jn on Sunday at afternoon 13:40 PM IST

Coach composition
The train is completely a 3-tier AC sleeper train designed by Indian Railways with features of LED screen display to show information about stations, train speed etc. and will have announcement system as well, Vending machines for tea, coffee and milk, Bio toilets in compartments as well as CCTV cameras.

The train has standard LHB rakes with max speed of 130 kmph. The train consists of 19 coaches :


 * 16 AC III Tier
 * 1 Pantry Car
 * 2 End-on Generator

Route and halts
• Shri Ganganagar Junction

• Hanumangarh Junction

• Suratgarh Junction

• Bikaner

• Jodhpur

• Marwar Junction

• Abu Road

• Palanpur Junction

• Mahesana Junction

• Ahmedabad Junction

• Nadiad Junction

• Anand Junction

• Vadodara Junction

• Bharuch Junction

• Surat

• Vasai Road

• Kalyan Junction

• Lonavala

• Pune Junction

• Satara

• Sangli

• Miraj Junction

• Belagavi

• Dharwad

• Hubli Junction

• Harihar

• Davangere

• Birur Junction

• Arsikere Junction

• Banaswadi

• Krishnarajapuram

• Bangarapet Junction

• Salem Junction

• Namakkal

• Karur Junction

• Tiruchirappalli Junction

Traction
As the entire route is fully electrified, it is hauled by a Vadodara Loco Shed based WAP 5 / WAP 7 electric locomotive from Shri Ganganagar to Tiruchirapalli and vice-versa.

Direction reversal
Train Reverses its direction 1 times:


 * Hanumangarh Junction

Future plans, proposals & Demands
In order to generate more revenue and to serve more people, this train service is planned to extend till Madurai Junction from Tiruchirappalli via Dindigul.

There are prolonged demands to extend this train till kanyakumari as there is no direct train connection from Rajasthan to religious destination Kanyakumari. Similarly there are also prolonged demands to operate more train services from southern region of Tamil Nadu such as Madurai, Tirunelveli to places like Ahamedabad, Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore as the existing train services are not enough to cater the needs of the people in these routes. So there is a strong demands from various regions of people to extend this train till kanyakumari or to Rameswaram as this train runs vacant mostly.