A railway across the sea
Rameswaram, home of the Ramanathaswamy Temple, one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, stands on Pamban Island, separated from the mainland by the Palk Strait. Reaching Rameswaram station (code RMM) by train means crossing the sea itself, on one of the most dramatic railway approaches in India.
The Pamban Bridge, 1914
The original Pamban Bridge opened on 24 February 1914 as India's first sea bridge. At 2,065 metres, it carried trains low over the waves, with a double-leaf Scherzer rolling-lift span in the middle that opened to let ships pass between the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay. The station itself had opened in 1906, originally known as Rameswaram Road.
The 1964 cyclone
In 1964, a severe cyclone struck Rameswaram. It damaged the Pamban Bridge and destroyed the metre-gauge branch from Pamban Junction to Dhanushkodi, at the island's tip, from where ferries had once crossed to Ceylon. The Dhanushkodi line was never rebuilt, and the town remains a ruin. The Boat Mail, still running to Chennai, keeps alive the name of the old boat-train connection.
Broad gauge and a new bridge
- 2007: the line is converted to broad gauge and the station rebuilt.
- December 2022: the old bridge is closed to trains after corrosion of its lifting span.
- April 2025: the New Pamban Bridge opens, described as India's first vertical-lift sea bridge, whose central span rises straight up to let vessels through.
While the bridge was closed, trains terminated at the mainland end, which explains the station's low traffic in 2022–23: about 1.09 million passengers that year.
The station
Rameswaram is graded NSG-3 and belongs to Southern Railway's Madurai division. It is just 2 metres above sea level, with 5 platforms on 12 tracks. Trains such as the Sethu Express and Boat Mail link it to Chennai, and services run to Madurai; see times on the train timings page.