Night train route
Sethu Express (Boat Mail)
Chennai → Rameswaram · India
Sethu Express (Boat Mail) in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 603 km
- Fastest time
- 9 h 40 min
- Average speed
- 62 km/h
- Top speed
- 110 km/h
- Countries
- India
- In service since
- 1914
- Runs
- 1× nightly each way
- Train
- ICF sleeper rake behind WAP-4 electric
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Heir to the 1914 Boat Mail that fed the Ceylon ferry, it now reaches Rameswaram island over India’s first vertical-lift sea bridge, opened 2025.
The Boat Mail began running south from Madras in 1914, feeding steamers that crossed the Palk Strait to Ceylon, and today’s Sethu Express carries the pilgrimage overnight to Rameswaram. Since April 2025 it has crossed the new 2.07 km Pamban bridge, India’s first vertical-lift sea span, whose 72.5 m section rises in minutes to let ships pass. On the island approach, waves break directly beneath the rails.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from 3 OpenStreetMap relations, their own nodes end to end: relation 1289108 (103 km), relation 1289109 (178 km), relation 9196840 (89 km) — 370 km of the route between them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 8 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: Indian Railways — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
Along the way
- Tiruchirappalli’s Rockfort skyline
- Chettinad mansion country at Karaikudi
- Ramanathapuram coastal scrub
- Pamban vertical-lift bridge crossing
- Ramanathaswamy temple corridors
How long is the Sethu Express (Boat Mail)?
The Sethu Express (Boat Mail) runs 603 km from Chennai to Rameswaram.
How long does the Sethu Express (Boat Mail) take?
The fastest scheduled journey is 9 h 40 min for the 603 km. That is an average of 62 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 110 km/h.
Who runs the Sethu Express (Boat Mail)?
Indian Railways (Southern Railway), with ICF sleeper rake behind WAP-4 electric.
How old is the Sethu Express (Boat Mail)?
The line has been in service since 1914. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
How often does the Sethu Express (Boat Mail) run?
1× nightly each way.
View on the world railway map →More night train routes
- EuroNight
Scandinavia’s night-train revival: across the Öresund while you sleep, into Germany by breakfast.
Wikipedia ↗ - Santa Claus Express
Rolls out of Helsinki by night and crosses into Lapland by morning: sleepers and car carriers bound for the Arctic Circle.
- Trans-Siberian Railway
The longest railway on Earth: 9,289 km, eight time zones and seven nights between Moscow and the Pacific.
Wikipedia ↗ - Mumbai Rajdhani
India’s first Rajdhani: the overnight flagship linking the capital with the financial capital, now in bright Tejas livery.
Wikipedia ↗
More train routes in India.