Vivek Express

On 25, 26 and 27 December 1892 a wandering monk sat on a rock in the sea off Kanyakumari, the southern tip of India, and meditated. It was there, the memorial on the rock says, that Swami Vivekananda decided to go to the West. In 2011 Indian Railways named a set of new long-distance trains after him, for the 150th anniversary of his birth, and the longest of them runs to that shore.

The Vivek Express leaves Dibrugarh, among the tea gardens of Upper Assam, at seven every evening, and reaches Kanyakumari three nights later at a quarter to ten: 4,188 kilometres in 74 hours and 45 minutes, with 57 stops on the way. Northeast Frontier Railway, which runs it, calls it the country's longest train. No other route on Indian Railways comes close; the next, Thiruvananthapuram to Silchar, is 271 km shorter. It crosses nine states, from the Brahmaputra valley across the north of Bengal, down the east coast through Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, and over the south to the backwaters of Kerala.

It is not a tourist train but an everyday express of sleeper and air-conditioned coaches, with a pantry car. Ride south for the views: in that direction the Brahmaputra, Chilika Lake, the Palakkad Gap and the Kerala lakes all pass in daylight.

The 22504 leaves Dibrugarh at 19:00 and runs through the night across Upper Assam, past New Tinsukia and Mariani, into Nagaland for a stop at Dimapur at half past one in the morning, and back into Assam at Lumding.

Day two: the Brahmaputra and the north of Bengal

Morning comes at Guwahati, where the train stands for a quarter of an hour from 06:45. It follows the south bank of the Brahmaputra west to Goalpara, then crosses the river on the Naranarayan Setu, a double-deck bridge of about 2.3 km with the rails below and a road above, to New Bongaigaon on the north bank. The afternoon is spent crossing the north of West Bengal by New Alipurduar and New Cooch Behar to New Jalpaiguri, at 15:35, the station for Darjeeling. Malda Town comes at 20:20, and the train crosses Bengal in the dark, skirting Kolkata at Dankuni at a quarter past one.

Day three: the east coast

The third morning is Odisha: Cuttack at 07:55, Bhubaneswar at 08:49, then Khurda Road, after which the line runs along the western shore of Chilika Lake, the largest brackish-water lagoon on India's east coast, by Balugaon and Rambha. Through the afternoon it follows the coast south into Andhra Pradesh, to Visakhapatnam at 15:30, where it stands for twenty minutes. Rajahmundry and the Godavari come at dusk, and Vijayawada at 21:10.

Day four: into Kerala

Early on the fourth morning the train is in Tamil Nadu, at Katpadi, and it turns west through Salem, Erode and Coimbatore. Around midday it passes through the Palakkad Gap, a break about 32 km wide in the Western Ghats, into Kerala. The afternoon runs down Kerala by Thrissur, Ernakulam Town (15:00) and Kottayam, crosses Ashtamudi Lake before Kollam at a quarter to six, and reaches Thiruvananthapuram at 19:10. Nagercoil is the last stop, and the train ends at Kanyakumari at 21:45, 1.3 km from the Rock Memorial.

The train

The train is made up of modern LHB coaches: sleeper, AC 3-tier and AC 2-tier, general second-class coaches that are not reserved, and a pantry car. There is no first class. It started in November 2011 as a weekly train, went twice a week in 2022 and has run daily in both directions since July 2024.

The Vivek Express runs daily in both directions. Every sleeper and air-conditioned berth is reserved.

Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari — 22504

Kanyakumari to Dibrugarh — 22503

The tables show a selection of the stops; the southbound train calls at 57 stations on the way and the northbound at 58. Northbound, the Kerala and Palakkad sections and Chilika Lake are passed at night.

Times are from IRCTC's train schedules, as of October 2026. Check your train on IRCTC (opens in a new tab) before travelling.

Every berth is sold by IRCTC, Indian Railways' booking service, online and in its app, and at station counters. Sleeper class is SL, AC 3-tier 3A and AC 2-tier 2A. Tickets can be bought for any section of the route, not only end to end.

Book well ahead. For Thursday 5 November 2026, three weeks out, the southbound train had only RAC places left in every class, meaning a shared berth until one frees up, and northbound every class had a waiting list. The fares below are those IRCTC quoted for that day, one way, for the whole route.

No rail pass covers the Vivek Express. Interrail and Eurail are European schemes, and India is not among the countries in Interrail's list of covered railway companies. Indian Railways' own pass for foreign visitors, the Indrail Pass, was withdrawn by Railway Board order on 19 September 2017. Every journey is bought as a ticket for a train, through IRCTC or at the station.

A pass would not be needed anyway. The whole 4,188 km costs ₹1,310 in sleeper class and ₹4,625 in AC 2-tier.

Checked October 2026 against Interrail's list of railway companies (opens in a new tab) and the Indrail Pass (opens in a new tab).

The two ends are where the time goes: Kanyakumari for the rocks, the sea and the sunrise, and Dibrugarh for the tea gardens and the river. Guwahati, reached in the morning in both directions, is the place to break the journey.

The train itself is three nights' sleep. Plan a night at the end you arrive at: the southbound train reaches Kanyakumari at 21:45, and the ferries to the rocks start in the morning. Dibrugarh is the base for the night before heading south; the train leaves at seven in the evening.

Planning this trip and stuck on something, or spotted a time, fare or detail that has changed? Send us a message about Vivek Express. We read every one, and we update this page when something has changed.