India has one of the largest railway network in the world, comprising 115,000 km of rail track over a route of 65,000 km and 7,500 stations. These Indian train route and station serve the 12,617 passenger trains and 7421 freight trains daily. It includes some extraordinarily long routes that span the length and breadth of India. Here is the list of longest train journeys in India one can make in a single train.
1. Vivek Express - Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari
With a running time of 80 hours and 15 minutes and about 55 scheduled stops, the Vivek Express covers the longest train route in India. It joins Dibrugarh in Assam, North-East India to Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu which is the southernmost tip of Mainland India. It covers a total of 4286 km from Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari. These trains were started to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, to be held in 2013.
2. Himsagar Express - Jammu Tawi to Kanyakumari
Himsagar Express is a weekly express train of the Indian Railways running between Kanyakumari in India's southernmost state of Tamil Nadu to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra in Jammu and Kashmir- the northernmost state of India. It is currently the second longest running train on the Indian Railways in terms of distance and time, surpassed only by the Dibrugarh–Kanyakumari Vivek Express. In 72 hours, the train covers a distance of 3787 km at a speed of 52 km/hr, and transverses twelve of India's states halting at a total of 73 stations.
3. Ten Jammu Express - Tirunelveli Jammu
The Ten Jammu Express runs between Tirunelveli, deep south in Tamil Nadu, and goes right up to Katra in Jammu & Kashmir covering a distance of some 3,631 kilometers. Of the 523 stations en route, it stops at 62 stations and has a running time of about 71 hours and 20 minutes. The train goes through 11 states and runs once a week.
4. Navyug Express - Mangalore to Jammu
The weekly express train runs between Jammu Tawi and Mangalore Central. The train covers a distance of 3607 km and takes 68 hrs to reach its destination. It passes through twelve states and stops at 61 stations, including Calicut, Coimbatore Junction, Vijayawada, Bhopal Junction, Jhansi Junction, Gwalior, Agra and New Delhi.
5. Guwahati Express - Thiruvananthapuram to Guwahati
The Guwahati Express leaves Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, and traverses the breadth of the country to reach Guwahati, the capital of Assam in the far east. The train covers a distance of 3553 km and takes 65 hours to reach its destination. It passes through 48 stations. Like most other long-distance trains this express is also scheduled to run once a week and travels through seven states.
6. Dibrugarh Express - Yeshwantpur (Bengaluru) to Dibrugarh
Though this train is named Dibrugarh Express, it starts off at New Tinsukia, about 15 kilometres away from Dibrugarh city in Assam. The train covers a distance of 3547 km and takes 68 hours to reach its destination. Some of the important cities that this train goes through, include Dimapur, Guwahati, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and Bengaluru covering about seven states and 35 halts in all.
7. Raptisagar Express - Eranakulam (Kochi) to Barauni
The Raptisagar Express runs between Ernakulam Junction in Kerala to Barauni in Begusarai district of Bihar. The train covers a distance of 3438 km and takes 62 hrs to reach its destination. It passes through eight states and stops at 60 stations.
8. Kerala Sampark Kranti Express - Chandigarh to Kochuveli
Kerala Sampark Kranti Express is a train that runs between Kochuveli Railway Station in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of the state of Kerala and Chandigarh in Punjab. The train covers a distance of 3398 km and takes 54 hr 25 minute to reach its destination. It passes through nine states and stops at 22 stations.
9. Amritsar Kochuveli Express - Amritsar to Kochuveli
The Amritsar Kochuveli Express leaves the north western frontier of the country and traverses seven states to make it to the southern end of the country. The train covers a distance of 3295 km and takes 57 hours and 20 minutes and 24 halts.
10. Dehradun Kochuveli Superfast Express -
Dehradun to Kochuveli
Halting at 24 stations and covering nine states, the Dehradun Kochuveli express travels from the capital of Uttarakhand right up to the capital of Kerala in the south. It covers a distance of about 3,154 kilometres with a running time of some 57 hours and 25 minutes.