Passengers boarding long-distance trains from Shoranur railway station will have to board from Ottapalam in Palakkad district from April 1 onwards. More than 10 long-distance trains will be skipping the Shoranur station in an attempt to improve punctuality.

A source from the Thiruvananthapuram division of the Southern Railway told TNM that the trains, which are presently running through the Shoranur junction railway station, will be diverted via the Shornur B line, to save time and avoid delays due to various “operational reasons” if stopped at Shoranur. According to the source, the minor inconvenience that the passengers will have to face due to the change in stations will be compensated by the punctuality of the train.

From April 1, some of the trains that will be skipping the Shoranur railway station are:

1. Train  12511: Gorakhpur - Thiruvananthapuram Raptisagar tri-weekly train
2. Train 12521: Barauni - Ernakulam weekly express
3. Train 22645: Indore - Thiruvananthapuram Ahilyanagari weekly express
4. Train 22647: Korba - Thiruvananthapuram bi-weekly express train
5. Train 13351.13352: Dhanbad - Alappuzha daily express train

Train 12522, the Ernakulam - Barauni Raptisagar weekly, will skip the station from April 5.

According to the railway source, one of the reasons behind the diversion of the trains is to reduce the congestion and traffic at the Shoranur station. Because of the heavy traffic, operations such as shunting or change of engines take a lot of time, causing a huge delay in train services.

The Ottapalam railway station is situated 15 kilometres away from the Shoranur junction railway station. This is bound to cause minor inconveniences to certain passengers.

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