Ernakulam Junction

Ernakulam Junction (also known as Ernakulam South, code: ERS) is the largest railway station in the city of Kochi. The station has six platforms and two terminals (the Main entry and the Eastern entry). It is a junction, joining lines going in four different directions namely: north towards Shornur, south towards Alappuzha, south-west towards Willingdon Island and east towards Kottayam. This station has 6 platforms to handle long distance trains and local trains.

The station is operated by the Southern Railway zone of the Indian Railways and comes under the Thiruvananthapuram railway division. It is one of the major railway stations in Kerala with trains to any part of India and also one of the A1 graded stations in the Southern Railway. The Station also has a Train Care Centre in its premises.

Another major railway station in downtown Kochi is the Ernakulam Town Railway Station. Besides this there are numerous railway stations in the Greater Cochin Region.

Because of the loop structure of the tracks, trains going from the Thrissur side to the Kottayam side via Ernakulam Junction have to reverse their directions, whereas those going to the Alappuzha do not face this problem.

Ernakulam Junction is one of the most important stations in India. It is the largest of the 3 major stations serving the city other being Ernakulam north and aluva railway station. It is the second busiest in terms of no of trains after aluva. Even though there has been many proposal to convert Ernakulam junction into a world class station no development is now presently occurring.