Express trains in India

Express trains are express rail services of India. Express trains make a small number of stops, unlike ordinary passenger or local trains. Because of their limited stops, these trains are able to obtain the highest speeds of any trains in India. An express train is one where the average speed, excluding halts, is greater than 42 km/h. Including halts the average speed often is below 42 km/h. Although this is pretty slow as compared to international standards, the "Express" trains here mean faster than the ordinary passenger and local trains. In some cases, trains run express where there is an overlapping passenger train service available, and run as passenger train, where there is no supplemental passenger service.

Indian Railways Rajdhani/Shatabdi lines[1]

Superfast

Superfast trains are express trains which make still fewer stops, as compared to ordinary express trains, achieving still shorter journey times. Tickets cost more than ordinary express trains as they have "superfast surcharge" added to them. Trains with an average speed, excluding halts, equaling or exceeding 55 kilometres per hour (34 mph) (60 kilometres per hour (37 mph) until the early 1990s) on both up and down journeys fall into this category and are numbered with a prefix of 12 or 22 or 20 (previously 2). Including halts the average speed often is below 55 km/h. In some cases, trains run superfast where there is an overlapping express service available, and run as ordinary express trains where there is no supplementary express service.

Mail

Mail trains are the trains which earlier exclusively had mail coaches. These coaches were named as "Railway Mail Service" coaches, and were operated with collaboration between the railways and the postal department. Nowadays, mail trains no longer have these coaches. The mail trains carry mail in the luggage coach itself, but the train branding continues to be in use.

Un-reserved travel

The Jan Sadharan Express and Antyodaya Express are fully Unreserved/General express trains. These trains have all Unreserved/General coaches.[2]

Apart from Antyodaya and Jan Sadharan trains, unreserved/general coaches are also present in express trains. A new series of Deen Dayalu coaches has also been proposed for long-distance trains. The Deen Dayalu coaches are more comfortable than the existing old coaches.[3]

Speed

The average speed of express trains, range from 36 kilometres per hour (22 mph) to 113 kilometres per hour (70 mph). Of this, counting up and down trains separately, 23 trains have an average speed more than 80 km/h, whereas 72 trains have an average speed between 70 and 80 km/h. The speed of express trains is calculated from the latest Indian Railways timetable.

The design of the railway switches, with a speed limit of 50–90 km/h, is the major bottleneck to higher speed.[4] Another constraint is the need to accommodate freight trains at the current top speed of 70 km/h.[5] These constraints to speed are consequences of sharing tracks with freight and lower speed suburban passenger trains.

The train stops reduce the average running speed of a train by preventing it from gaining higher speed. The distance between stops is as short as 2 km between New Bongaigaon-Bongaigaon on the Howrah–Dibrugarh Kamrup Express, and as long as 528 km between VadodaraKota on the Thiruvananthapuram Rajdhani Express.

Train categoryTrain nameMax. speedAvg. speedNotes
Gatimaan Express Jhansi Gatimaan Express160 km/h113 km/h*the fastest train in India according to operational speeds
Vande Bharat Express Varanasi Vande Bharat Express 130 km/h[6] 96.8 km/h Theoretically the Fastest Train in India ( Capable of 180 km/h )
Rajdhani Express Bandra Rajdhani Express130 km/h97.8 km/hfastest Rajdhani express
Shatabdi ExpressHabibganj–New Delhi Shatabdi Express150 km/h89 km/h
  • third fastest train in India
  • fastest Shatabdi Expresses
Duronto ExpressSealdah–Bikaner Duronto Express135 km/h85 km/h
  • fourth-fastest train in India
  • fastest Duronto Expresses
Rajdhani Express Mumbai Rajdhani Express130 km/h91.3 km/hsecond fastest Rajdhani express between Mumbai and Delhi after Bandra Rajdhani Express
Vande Bharat Express New Delhi Shri Mata Vaishnov Devi Katra Vande Bharat Express130 km/h81.8 km/hsecond train of Vande Bharat Express series
Tejas Express Mumbai CSMT–Karmali Tejas Express130 km/h66.8 km/hfirst Tejas express of India
Tejas Express Lucknow–New Delhi Tejas Express130 km/h83 km/hfastest Tejas express. Operated by Private (IRCTC)
Tejas Express Chennai Egmore–Madurai Tejas Express130 km/h78 km/hfirst Tejas express of South India
Tejas Express Ahmedabad – Mumbai Central Tejas Express130 km/h78 km/hThird dedicated premium train between Mumbai to Ahmedabad
Rajdhani ExpressHowrah Rajdhani Express130 km/h85 km/hfifth-fastest train in India
Shatabdi ExpressHowrah–Ranchi Shatabdi Express130 km/h74 km/hsixth-fastest train in India
Suvidha Superfast ExpressPatna–Mumbai CST Suvidha Superfast Express110 km/h63 km/hfastest Suvidha Express
Yuva ExpressHowrah–Anand Vihar Yuva Express130 km/h82 km/hfastest Yuva Express
Garib Rath ExpressBandra Terminus–Hazrat Nizamuddin Garib Rath Express130 km/h82 km/hfastest Garib Rath Express
Duronto Express Mumbai Central–Rajkot Duronto Express120 km/h76 km/hRuns non stop from Mumbai to Ahmedabad
Jan Shatabdi ExpressKota–Hazrat Nizamuddin Jan Shatabdi Express110 km/h71 km/hfastest Jan Shatabdi Express
Sampark Kranti ExpressMaharashtra Sampark Kranti Express110 km/h69 km/h
  • fastest Sampark Kranti Express
  • fastest version of Superfast Express trains in India
Double Decker ExpressMumbai Central–Ahmedabad Double Decker Express130 km/h69 km/hfastest Double Decker Express
AC ExpressLokmanya Tilak Terminus–Hazrat Nizamuddin AC Express120 km/h76 km/hfastest AC Express
State ExpressVisakhapatnam - New Delhi AP Express130 km/h76 km/hfastest State Express train
Superfast ExpressShram Shakti Express110 km/h67 km/hNon-stop train, Superfast.
ExpressKSR Bengaluru–Nagercoil Express100 km/h45 km/hAn ordinary Express train

See also

References

  1. Chauhan, Arvind (6 June 2015). "India's fastest train completes final test run in record time". The Times of India.
  2. "Routes and Timetables of New Tejas, Uday, Humsafar and Antyodaya Trains". 24 Coaches. 29 September 2016.
  3. "Deen Dayalu coaches: Indian Railways' swanky new offerings for general class". The Economic Times. 26 July 2016.
  4. "High Speed – T.R.Natarajan, Indian Railways". Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016.
  5. Government of India Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) (December 2009). "Indian Railways 2020 Vision" (PDF).
  6. 22436/New Delhi - Varanasi Vande Bharat Express
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