Popular Trains Passing Through Tambaram Railway Station

Move ahead twenty-five kilometres from Chennai Central, and Tambaram Railway Station is already handling traffic that would test a proper city terminal. Station code TBM, Southern Railway zone, Chennai division. Over two lakh passengers pass through on a regular day. The registered train count sits at 1,577. That includes the Vande Bharat services heading south, the Amrit Bharat rakes going east, the weekly trains arriving from Assam, and the suburban EMU grid running its tight Beach to Chengalpattu loop. Most passengers here are going into or out of southern Tamil Nadu, and TBM is usually the point where Chennai falls away.

Nine platforms total. Platforms 1 to 4 carry the suburban EMU traffic: Chennai Beach to Chengalpattu, back and forth. Platforms 5 to 9 take everything else. The split matters because delays from one side do not always stay on one side.

About Tambaram Railway Station

Station Code: TBM
Zone: Southern Railway (SR)
Division: Chennai
Number of Platforms: 9
Daily Footfall: Approx. 2 lakh passengers

Tambaram Railway Station or TBM is both a transit halt and an originating terminal. That is not true of most intermediate stations. Some trains start here rather than passing through, which means the platform mix on any given day includes departing long-distance rakes alongside the suburban EMU grid. Two categories, shared infrastructure. When freight or suburban delays stack up on one side, express trains on the other side feel it. Checking live train running status at Tambaram before heading out is a more useful habit than it looks.

Vande Bharat Trains at Tambaram Railway Station

Southern Railway runs four Vande Bharat services through Tambaram.

20627 / 20628 Chennai Egmore to Nagercoil Vande Bharat Express 724 km, eight hours, and the rake now runs 20 coaches. Most Vande Bharat services in Tamil Nadu stay at 16. The Nagercoil corridor kept filling up faster than 16 coaches could handle. Southern Railway added four more. Tambaram and Chengalpattu come first, then Madurai and Tirunelveli. Six days, no Wednesdays.

20665 / 20666 Chennai Egmore to Tirunelveli Vande Bharat Express The locals call it the Nellai Vande Bharat. Six stops across 650 km, and it still averages 84 km/h, which is unusual for a train that halts that many times. Now on Vande Bharat 3.0 stock. Passes through Tambaram shortly after leaving Egmore. No Tuesdays.

20671 / 20672 Madurai to Bengaluru Cantonment Vande Bharat Express Tambaram is an intermediate stop on this cross-state service. 573 km between Madurai and Bengaluru, roughly 7 hours 45 minutes, eight coaches on Vande Bharat 2.0 stock. Runs six days a week.

20643 / 20644 Chennai Central to Coimbatore Vande Bharat Express 499 km via Salem. One of the older Vande Bharat services in Tamil Nadu, which is partly why it fills up the way it does. No Thursdays.

Vande Bharat seats go faster than most express trains, especially on weekends. Checking seat availability in train a few days ahead is the better habit here.

Amrit Bharat Trains at Tambaram Railway Station

January 2026 saw three Amrit Bharat services launched from TBM. Southern Railway chose Tambaram as the originating point for all three rather than routing them through Chennai Central.

16107 / 16108 Tambaram to Santragachi Amrit Bharat Express 1,668 km to Santragachi Junction in West Bengal, just under 29 hours. Andhra Pradesh and Odisha come before Bengal on that route. LHB Sleeper and General Unreserved coaches, saffron-grey livery. Weekly.

16121 / 16122 Tambaram to Thiruvananthapuram Central Amrit Bharat Express 768 km, about 14 hours 30 minutes to Thiruvananthapuram. Viluppuram, Trichy, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Nagercoil all fall on this route. Passengers at those points board here rather than going into Chennai. Weekly.

16103 / 16104 Tambaram to Rameswaram Express Daily. April 2025, a few months after the new Pamban Bridge opened. 618 km, 16 stops, about 11 hours 30 minutes on LHB coaches: 2A, 3A, Sleeper, and General.

Superfast Express Trains at Tambaram: South India Routes

Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala: most of the superfast traffic at TBM stays within these four states.

12759 / 12760 Charminar Express (Tambaram to Hyderabad Deccan) Daily departure from TBM at 17:30. 818 km to Hyderabad in around 14 hours 40 minutes. The Charminar originally ran from Chennai Central before the terminal shift to Tambaram. Full coach spectrum from 1A to General, LHB rakes.

12663 / 12664 Howrah Tiruchirapalli Express Bi-weekly, passes through Tambaram both directions. It is one of the older trains on the Kolkata to Tamil Nadu corridor and still sees consistent ridership because the alternatives on this route are either weekly or significantly longer in distance.

20635 / 20636 Ananthapuri Superfast Express Normally at Chennai Egmore. During the Egmore redevelopment period it was temporarily shifted to originate from Tambaram. Kerala to Tamil Nadu, coaches from 1A down to General.

20683 / 20684 Thamirabarani Express (Tambaram to Sengottai) 750 km, tri-weekly, about 14 hours. LHB rakes with 3A Economy alongside Sleeper. Thiruvarur, Karaikudi, Aruppukottai, Tenkasi: none of these see a faster train, and the Thamirabarani is what connects them.

The trains between stations feature on RailMitra helps when you are trying to compare halts, timings, and coach options across these services before committing to a booking.

Superfast Express Trains at Tambaram: Long-Distance Routes

A few superfast services go further than South India.

12375 / 12376 Tambaram to Jasidih Ratna Weekly Superfast Express Jasidih Junction is in Jharkhand, 1,872 km and 28 stops from TBM. The journey takes roughly 34 hours 45 minutes. Weekly, LHB coaches: 2A, 3A, Sleeper, and General. Among the longer-haul superfasts originating from Tambaram.

22623 / 22624 Madurai to Tambaram Mahal Superfast Express 533 km, eight stops, about 9 hours 35 minutes. Bi-weekly. Low halt count for the distance, and the speed reflects it. Runs in 2A, 3A, Sleeper, and General.

12652 Tamil Nadu Sampark Kranti Express (Madurai to Hazrat Nizamuddin) Delhi is the destination, Madurai the origin. Tambaram is a halt on the northward run. Passengers using trains between stations on RailMitra for the Chennai to Delhi corridor come across this one regularly.

Mail and Express Trains at Tambaram Railway Station

Superfast trains skip a lot of stations. Mail and express trains at TBM fill those gaps: more halts, wider coach variety, and generally more waitlist movement in the weeks before travel.

16128 / 16127 Guruvayur to Chennai Egmore Express Daily, Kerala to Chennai via Tambaram. Sleeper class availability tends to be more manageable on this one compared to the superfast Kerala services, particularly midweek.

11018 / 11017 Karaikal Lokmanyatilak Express (Tambaram to Mumbai) Weekly, around 1,700 km to Lokmanyatilak Terminus in Mumbai. Direct Tambaram to Mumbai options are limited and this one comes up specifically because there is not much competition on a weekly basis.

17644 / 17643 Circar Express (Kakinada Port to Chengalpattu) Two minutes at Tambaram: in at 06:43, out at 06:45. Connects Kakinada Port in northern Andhra to Chengalpattu, and TBM is a quick intermediate halt. This train is particularly helpful to the passengers who come from the coastal side of Andhra Pradesh.

16106 / 16105 Tiruchchirapalli to Chennai Express This train operates daily and connects the central Tamil Nadu passengers towards Tambaram as well as Chennai. This train is used by mostly those passengers who could not get  confirmed seats on the superfast trains.

16864 Bhagat Ki Kothi Express (Tambaram to Jodhpur) Jodhpur in Rajasthan, weekly. Among the rare TBM services that go west rather than east or north.

Intercity and Day Trains at Tambaram Railway Station

Two services at TBM are built for same-day travel with no sleeper berths at all.

16807 / 16808 Tambaram to Tiruchirapalli Intercity Express Launched in March 2026. Chair Car and AC Chair Car only. 377 km and 15 stops over about 7 hours 10 minutes, five days a week. A straightforward same-day option for the Trichy corridor.

12675 / 12676 Kovai Superfast Express (Chennai Central to Coimbatore) Passes through Tambaram on the Chennai end. About 7 hours 55 minutes to Coimbatore. Chair car is the main class and it fills steadily.

Intercity timings at TBM run tighter than overnight services. Checking the train schedule on RailMitra before heading out gives you the actual gap between listed and real departure, which can matter on a busy platform.

Weekly and Special Trains at Tambaram Railway Station

Weekly and bi-weekly trains at Tambaram are easy to miss when filtering by frequency. AC class seats on these tend to stay open longer, simply because fewer people look at them.

15930 / 15929 New Tinsukia to Tambaram Express Originates in Assam. West Bengal, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh are all on the route before it reaches TBM. Terminates here rather than Chennai Central, which is unusual for a Northeast service.

15629 / 15630 Guwahati to Tambaram Express Guwahati to Tambaram, weekly. Trial runs from this station started in 2017 and the schedule has held since.

20691 / 20692 Tambaram to Nagercoil Antyodaya Superfast Express Daily, General class only, no reservation needed. Trichy, Madurai, and Tirunelveli come before Nagercoil on the 764 km route. Daily frequency without a booking requirement is not common on a run this long.

22643 / 22644 Ernakulam to Patna Superfast Express Ernakulam in Kerala to Patna in Bihar, weekly. Tambaram is a Tamil Nadu halt on a corridor that otherwise connects two states without much overlap.

Food at Tambaram Railway Station

Western entrance, Platform 1 side: that is where the food plaza is. Saravana Bhavan and McDonald’s are both within a short walk. Platform vendors carry idli, vada, tea, and water through most of the day, with mobile stalls picking up during the morning and afternoon tiffin windows.

The biriyani stalls near the station gates pick up in the evening when long-distance trains start arriving from the south. Sambar rice and curd rice are the other reliable options if you are on the platform and need something quick.

For passengers on trains with a short halt at Tambaram, train food delivery through RailMitra is a cleaner option. The stop might be only a few minutes and the platform is busy, so having the food at your seat rather than scrambling to a stall is genuinely practical. RailMitra covers Tambaram with restaurant options alongside standard train meals.

PNR Status and Live Train Status at Tambaram

Waitlist movement at Tambaram varies a lot depending on which railway zone the train belongs to. Southern Railway, South Central Railway, and Eastern Railway trains all stop here, and waitlist clearing patterns differ across them. A ticket on the Charminar Express clears differently from one on the Howrah Trichy Express even if both are booked from the same station. Tracking PNR status regularly from the booking date is the better approach than checking once and hoping.

On the running status side, the Chennai mainline corridor carries freight traffic alongside passenger trains. Trains arriving from Madurai or the Kerala end sometimes run late because of this, and finding that out before leaving for the station is simple enough. Check live train status before you leave for your journey.

Conclusion

Not many suburban stations end up carrying this kind of load. Tambaram Railway Station took on long-distance originating services gradually, absorbing traffic that Chennai Central and Egmore could not hold. The Amrit Bharat trains to West Bengal and Kerala start from here. Vande Bharat services south to Nagercoil and Coimbatore pass through. Weekly trains from Assam terminate at TBM rather than at the main city terminals. That is a lot for a station 25 kilometres outside Chennai. Tambaram Railway Station has been doing that job for a while now, and the train count keeps growing.