The Marusagar Express is a weekly express train that runs between

Ajmer Ajmer is one of the major and oldest cities in the Indian state of Rajasthan and the centre of the eponymous Ajmer District. It is located at the centre of Rajasthan. It is also known as heart of Rajasthan. The city was established as "' ...

and Ernakulam, connecting

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka to

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. The train runs through four zones of

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tota ...

, travelling 2860 km in around 48 hours. There are 32 halts along the way. It starts from Ajmer on Friday morning and reaches Ernakulam Junction on Sunday early morning, and starts back to Ajmer on Sunday evening to reach Ajmer on Tuesday afternoon. Marusagar Express (Ajmer - Ernakulam) Route map

Marusagar Express (Ajmer - Ernakulam) Route map

History

The service of this train was proposed in year 1999 rail budget from

Indore Junction Indore Junction (station code: INDB) is one of the Railway junctions in Madhya Pradesh and serves Indore, the commercial capital of Central India. The railway station of Indore Junction BG (future Indore Central) falls under the administrativ ...

railway station of

Indore Indore () is the largest and most populous city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It serves as the headquarters of both Indore District and Indore Division. It is also considered as an education hub of the state and is the only city to ...

as Indore–Mangalore Weekly Express but due to non-availability of the rake and traction and delay in the service at Mangalore, the erstwhile Indore–Chennai

Ahilyanagari Express The 22645/22646 Ahilya nagari Express is a weekly Superfast Express trains in India, Superfast train of the Indian Railways, running between Indore in Madhya Pradesh and Kochuveli in Kerala (via Chennai Central). From February 2021, the termin ...

got extended to

Cochin Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

Trivandrum Central Thiruvananthapuram Central, formerly Trivandrum Central (also known as Thampanoor railway station) (station code: TVC), is a major railway station which serves the city of Thiruvananthapuram (formerly Trivandrum), capital of Kerala state, In ...

via Ernakulam. A weekly train was also started from

to Kochuveli via

Mangalore Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ke ...

. Later after several demands the train was started on 4 September 2002 from ,

to Mangalore Junction as 'Ratlam–Mangalore Superfast Express' with 10 AC coaches, 10 Sleeper, 2 General and 2 SLR coaches. Since, Ratlam was an intermediate station for Jaipur and Vadodara respectively and to avoid the changes made in the route of Ratlam–Mangalore Express, Later in year 2003 it got extended to

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known ...

on one side and to Ernakulam on other side. From 2009 September onwards, the service of this train was extended up to Ajmer Junction. It is the fourth fastest train of North Western Railways after 12973/12974 Indore–Jaipur Express, 12181/12182 Jaipur–Jabalpur Super Fast Express & 12465/12466 Jodhpur–Indore Intercity Express. This train is in the "Superfast" category, and so has more importance than normal passenger and express train.

Origin of name

The word "MaruSagar" essentially means "Desert-Ocean". The word "Maru" refers to the

Thar Desert The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is an arid region in the north-western part of the Subcontinent that covers an area of and forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan. It is the world's 20th-largest desert, a ...

in Rajasthan and the word "Sagar" refers to the ocean (the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...

). Thus, the train connects the desert state of Rajasthan to the Arabian Sea coast in the West. It travels from

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

, in

, passing through the towns of

Sawai Madhopur Sawai Madhopur is a city and Municipal Council (Nagar Parishad) in the Sawai Madhopur District in Rajasthan state, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Sawai Madhopur District of Rajasthan. Ranthambore National Park which is 7&nbs ...

, Kota,

Nagda Nagda is an industrial town in Ujjain district of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It lies in the administrative headquarters of the city of Ujjain, in the Malwa region of western Madhya Pradesh. It is situated on the bank of the Chambal Riv ...

Ratlam Junction Ratlam Junction railway station is a major rail junction on the New Delhi–Mumbai main line of Indian Railways. Ratlam is A – category railway station of Western Railway Zone of Indian Railways. Its code is RTM. It serves Ratlam city. The st ...

Vadodara Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capita ...

Panvel Panvel () is a city and taluka in Raigad district of Maharashtra, India. It is highly populated due to its closeness to Mumbai. Panvel is also governed for development purpose by the body of Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Panvel Municipal Corpor ...

, Raigad, Ratnagiri,

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

, Kasaragod, ,

Kozhikode Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second l ...

, , and on the way. After Vadodara, the train travels along the western coast of India beside the

Train details

*12978 DN

-> Ernakulam (Friday) *12977 UP Ernakulam ->

(Sunday)

Train composition

LOCO-SLR-GS-GS-S1-S2-S3-S4-S5-S6-S7-S8-S9-S10-PC-B5-B4-B3-B2-B1-A1-HB1-GS-GS-SLR;

Loco link

The train runs hauls by a

Bhagat Ki Kothi Bhagat Ki Kothi is a place in Rajasthan, near Jodhpur. Bhagat Ki Kothi is famous for the Thar Express. This station connects India and Karachi, Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), ...

-based

WDP-4 The EMD GT46PAC or WDP4 is a passenger-hauling diesel-electric locomotive with AC electric transmission designed by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and built by both GM-EMD and under license by Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW) of Varanasi ...

WDP-4B The EMD GT46PAC or WDP4 is a passenger-hauling diesel-electric locomotive with AC electric transmission designed by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and built by both GM-EMD and under license by Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW) of Varanasi, ...

WDP-4D The EMD GT46PAC or WDP4 is a passenger-hauling diesel-electric locomotive with AC electric transmission designed by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and built by both GM-EMD and under license by Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW) of Varanasi, ...

diesel locomotive on its entire journey.

References