Thiruvananthapuram is the largest and busiest railway station in Kerala based on the passenger inflow. The station is also vital and most profitable in the Southern Railways Division. Every day the railway station handles over 200,000 passengers. The station is the hallmark of ancient architecture and was built in 1931 under the aegis of Sree Chithira Thirunal, the Maharaja of Travancore. Thiruvananthapuram Central (code named TVC) is the primary railway station for the city and is located opposite to the Central Bus Station. Over the years, due to high passenger turnout, a second (south) terminal was built at the station in 2004, followed by third (west) terminal in 2007. There are twelve platforms, ten broad-gauge, and two meter gauge at the Thiruvananthapuram central station.

The station is the terminus for the landmark High Speed Rail corridor connecting Chennai and Bangalore with Thiruvananthapuram. Mangalore-Thiruvananthapuram High Speed Rail corridor was proposed in the recent railway budget. The central station is already along the longest train routes in the country with the Kanyakumari-Jammu Express route. Thiruvananthapuram is connected with all major cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Indore, Calicut, Mangalore, Gorakhpur, Madurai, and Hyderabad.

Thiruvananthapuram railway station has modernized facilities with a host of the latest passenger amenities at service. These include the computerized ticket counter for both the reservation and unreserved, escalators inside the station to commute between the platforms, furnished waiting rooms for all categories, well-maintained restrooms, and delicious food offerings at the in-house restaurants on the platform. The passengers also have access to Any Time Money (ATM), automatic ticket vending machine for platform tickets, elevators for the benefit of old persons, 24×7 customer service, foot over bridge with escalators, public address system with multiple languages for non-local passengers, prepaid auto and complimentary cloak room services. Other value added services include book stalls with a wide variety of novels, internet browsing centres, essential commodity stores with vital household items for sale and even a well-furnished dormitory inside the railway station.

The central station is well guarded with X-ray scanners located at all terminal entrances, equipped with large vehicle parking facility, parcel booking service through railway postal services, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screens to update the train arrivals & departures, pleasant lighting ambience and solar lamps on the platform. The Thiruvananthapuram central station was also the first station to have a video surveillance in the state. The modern security gadgets are used by the Railway Protection Force (RPF), and with 24 railway tracks, the station also functions as a hanger.

The central station due to its proximity to the bus services registers high passenger occupancy at any time of the day. There are proposals for modernisation of the central station into world class facility with an estimated budget of $16 million, and such a project would add new features to the central station. Thiruvananthapuram central station will be the first railway station to have two satellite stations to support its functions with increased passenger traffic over the last decade. The myriad of services offered at the central stations became the best practices across all the other railway stations in the Southern Railway Zone of the Indian Railways.

The station is located at almost 3.6 kilometres from the International airport, and 134 kilometres from the Tuticorin Airport. Over the years, the station has positioned itself as the jewel in the Southern Railway Division. The nearest railway stations to Thiruvananthapuram are Kochuveli Station (8 KM North), Nemom Railway station (8 KM South), and Nagercoil Junction (68 KM).

Kochuveli Railway Station

A satellite station was opened in 2005 at Kochuveli called the Kochuveli railway station (code named KCVL) close to the international airport. This railway station was built to ease the passenger traffic at the Thiruvananthapuram central station. Located north of the central station and almost 8 kilometres from the Thiruvananthapuram city, the station already operates long distance trains from the eastern side of the satellite terminal.

Nemom Railway Station

Southern Railways proposed to build another satellite railway station at Nemom to handle the passenger traffic at Thiruvananthapuram central station. Nemom railway station (code named NEM) would also support the maintenance activities that are currently done at the Thiruvananthapuram central station. Located south of the central station and almost 8 kilometres from the Thiruvananthapuram city, Nemom Railway station when operational would serve as the terminus station for all the trains coming to Thiruvananthapuram central station.