With four of the top 10 Vande Bharat Express trains and six of the top 10 highly occupied Express trains among the Railways being from Southern Railway (SR), the Zone has achieved several firsts in the passenger service (commercial) indices among the zonal railways in the country for 2025-26.
Train No. 20632 Thiruvananthapuram Central (TVC) - Mangaluru Central (MAQ) Vande Bharat Express was in the top position with 187.78% occupancy among VBs across the country. Its pairing service, Train No. 20631 MAQ-TVC VB Express was in the third position with 173.33% occupancy; Train No. 20633 Kasargod (KGQ)-TVC VB Express in the fourth position (172.87%) and Train No. 20634 TVC-KGQ VB Express was in the seventh position with 159.36% occupancy, according to SR Chief Public Relations Officer M. Senthamil Selvan.
Highly occupied trains
SR achieved another milestone, with six of the top 10 highly occupied trains across Railways originating from its network and three trains terminating in the Zone. Train No. 16650 Kanniyakumari-MAQ Parasuram Express topped the list with 267.67% occupancy, followed by Train No. 20931 Thiruvananthapuram North-Indore Express (266.24%), Train No. 16649 MAQ-Kanniyakumari Parasuram Express (261.23%), Train No. 12625 TVC-New Delhi Kerala Express (259.88%), Train No. 19568 Okha-Tuticorin Vivek Express (252.72%), Train No. 16317 Kanniyakumari-Katra Himsagar Express (251.75%), Train No. 19578 Jamnagar-Tirunelveli Express (250.61%), Train No. 16338 Ernakulam-Okha Express (250.34%) and Train No. 16335 Gandhidham-Nagercoil Express (248% occupancy) in the next positions.
