At last I managed to get the latest South Zone Time Table effective from July 2012 onwards. In the Table 5A and 5A (M) Monsoon, it is clearly indicated that 12978
Ajmer -Ernakulam Marusagar departs from Tirur at 00-25 hrs and 1-20 hrs during Monsoon period. That should settle this controversy once and for all till the next revision as the travelling public is put to a lot of uncertainty and inconvenience.
I would request the administrator to change the time shedule consistent with the latest time table. The...
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present shedule erroneously shows that 12978 passes through Tirur at 1 -41 am without a halt.!!
From pvh_46

pvh46
The controversy & confusion whether 12978
ERl bound Marusagar exp stops at Tirur or not continues.Last timetable JULY,11 settled the issue by providing a halt at Tirur. But in March, '12, there was an unofficial news that the halt has been withdrawn. But with the introduction of the new timetable in July, 2012, the halt appears to have been restored. Unfortunately copies of time table are still not available in Chennai.
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Recently, I was tracking the movement of 12978 which left Amer on 6/7/12 at 7 -40. via train shedule through www.sr.indianrailways.gov.in. It indicated both the sheduled arrival as well as the actual arrival and departure time at TIRUR, viz. i -18/1 -20, and 1 -35/1 -37 ,respectively on 8/7/2012.
This means that there is an official commercial halt at tirur for 12978. It will be good if the administrator clarifies on the matter. In the good old days Time Tables used to be sacrosanct and no official or politician could meddle with it as a matter of right. Perumkolam V. Hariharan

In the past, I have on different occasions indicated how the our railway tracks are over-utilised, and railway technical teams do hair splitting exercises to squeeze in Shatabdis or durontos (durantham) in the already water-tight shedules.
The results are there for us to see-- The Kalka Mail tragedy.
I feel a time has come when the power of the rly. minister should be withdrawn from announcing populist trains at the spur of the moment. The Railway Technical committee must have the veto power in the decision to...
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introduce a train if after exploring all the avenues they feel there is no scope wihout compromising on passenger safety. Unfortunately, our professionals are not allowed to work without fear or favour.
What has happened to all the safety funds that have been collected from passengers over the last several years? How much time do the railway staff really get on track maintenance given the heavy over-utilisation of capacities?
The need of the hour is safe ,reliable and reasonably quick trains within the ambit of safe transportation, basic amenities like drinking water at stations , shelters, clean toilets etc. One should really see the condition of some medium category mofussil stations. There are still some branch lines where the passengers have to climb on to the bogies since the train has not touched the small platform.
Our bullet trains and durontos can wait. Let railways reintroduce Janatha EXpresses