Vivek Express

Vivek Express refers to multiple related express trains on the Indian Railways network. These services were launched in 2013 to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. One of the Vivek Express trains, the one from Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari, is the longest route on the Indian Railways network, in terms of distance and time, and is currently the 28th longest in the world.
As of June 2024, there are 4 pairs of Vivek Express trains.
This Daily Superfast train, numbered 22503 / 22504, is currently the longest train route in the Indian Subcontinent. It connects Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari. It runs 4155 km in 74:20 hours with 57 intermediate stops. This train runs through Assam, Nagaland, West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. This train also passes through Sahibganj district and Pakur district of Jharkhand but it does not have any stoppages there.
This train covers important cities en route, such as Dimapur, Guwahati, Siliguri, Kolkata (Dankuni), Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Berhampur, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Nellore, Tirupati, Salem, Erode, Tiruppur, Coimbatore, Kochi (Ernakulam Town) and Thiruvananthapuram.
This too, is a weekly train, numbered 19567/19568. It connects Okha, Gujarat (which is the westernmost tip of India) to Thoothukudi, the "Pearl City", in Tamil Nadu in South India. This train covers 3043 km in 54:25 hours. It travels through the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
This train is also religiously important, as it joins two places of religious significance, namely Lord Krishna's Dwarka and Rameswaram, which lies close to Thoothukudi.
The train covers important cities en route, namely Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Mumbai Vasai Road, Kalyan, Pune, Gulbarga, Adoni, Bangalore (Krishnarajapuram), Salem, Karur and Madurai.
This train seeks its origin from Bandra Terminus, one of the main stations in Mumbai. This train, 19027/19028, like other Vivek Expresses, is also a weekly train from Bandra Terminus, Mumbai to Jammu Tawi in North India. However, unlike other typical North Indian trains, this train bypasses New Delhi or Delhi NCR. It goes via Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Abu Road, Jodhpur, Degana, Churu, Sadulpur, Hisar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Chakki Bank, thus bypassing Delhi NCR.
The 22851/22852 Vivek Express links Santragachhi, a town in the vicinity of Howrah, Kolkata in West Bengal to Mangalore Central in Karnataka. This is also a weekly train, which comes under the Superfast category of the Indian Railways, unlike other Vivek Expresses. This train passes through the states of West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. Important cities en route are Odisha {Bhubaneswar, Brahmapur}, Andhra Pradesh {Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry, Eluru, Vijayawada, Nellore, Tirupati}, Tamil Nadu {Salem, Erode, Tiruppur, Coimbatore}, Kerala {Palakkad, Tirur, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod}.
Owing to the positive response to Vivek Express trains by the masses, the Railway Ministry was at one point considering starting a new Vivek Express in the North to East Corridor, between Jammu Tawi and North East India. Vivek Express trains currently run from East to South, South to West, West to North and again East to South India respectively. The proposed fifth North to East Vivek Express would have completed the quadrilateral.