This railway line came into existence through South West line of
Madras Railway a private colonial rail enterprise that existed in
British Raj. The first section of this line was established between
Tirur and
Beypore on 12 March 1861 and this line was 30.5 km (19 miles) long. This happens to be the first railway line in present-day
Kerala. This line was subsequently extended 14.5 km till
Kuttippuram on 1 May 1861 and from there till
Pattambi for a distance of 37 km on 23 September 1862 so as to link with 105 km long
Pattambi -
Podanur section which got commissioned on 14 April 1862. On 2 January 1888 the rail head at
Beypore was abolished and line was extended to
Kozhikode via
Ferok. The line was further extended till
Mangalore in phases by 1907. On 31 August 1956 this entire section came under
Palakkad railway division. In 1998, following the opening of Konkan railways, many trains like
Thiruvananthapuram Rajdhani Express,
Marusagar Express etc. were routed through this section. In 2014, this section got completely converted to double line traffic and by 2017 entire section got completely electrified. On 25 April 2023,
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi flagged of the first
Vande Bharat Express through this route between
Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod. == Accidents ==