@anon: Dec 30 11:50AM

That train started when Railway started British Raj, that train we call it as historical ,train . When my child hood , my father said like his gr. father a have furniture shop in shivaj nagar, he used to come this train . he died 1973. and my gr.died 2004. This is the only train daily trip to banglore and southern part Kerala. please read more in wikpedia.
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More than 2 Lac Malayalies it self leaving Banglore and suburbs, Average 10,000 people commuting daily inbetween these sectors,
first these poor people gave the preference these trains, next chance they try buses any state bus which geoes their destination or any other ways like fly or car depends upon his money and urgency, that is the fact. even though many trains railway introduced , still this is only one daily train is running from BLR.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Express_(train)

The Island Express is an Indian Railways train running between Bangalore and Kanyakumari. Train# 6526 runs from Bangalore to Kanyakumari, and Train# 6525 runs in the reverse direction. The train runs daily via Coimbatore, and covers the 944 km route in about 20 hours.

No part of the train's route is on an island; the name was given because the predecessor of this train used to start its journey from the Cochin Harbour Terminus station in Willingdon Island, Kochi, Kerala, (Cochin) till the late 1970s. At that time, it was the only train that connected Bangalore (Karnataka state) to Kerala.

Later this train became Nagarcoil Express after the gauge conversion between cochin and Nagercoil via Trivandrum. Later it was extended to Kanniyakumari.

The Island Express also experienced a horrible railway accident when a large number of its coaches fell into the lake Ashtamudi Kayal while crossing the railway bridge. Hundreds lost their lives. The driver of the train was later declared unfit for driving. See: Peruman railway accident




Timings
This train leaves Bangalore at 21:40 hours to reach Kanyakumari at 18:00 hours the next day. This is the only daily train between Bangalore and Kerala. For the return trip, this train leaves Kanyakumari at 10:30 hours to reach Bangalore at 6:55 AM.