Shatabdi Express () are a series of fast passenger trains operated by the Indian Railways. These are day trains and mostly return to their origin station the same day. The trains run at a maximum permissible speed of depending on the infrastructure on the corresponding route.

History The name "Shatabdi" means century in Sanskrit and the first Shatabdi Express train was announced on 10-July-1988 by then railways minister Madhavrao Scindia to commemorate the birth centenary of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Indian prime minister and plied between New Delhi and Gwalior. The first Shatabdi, at that time the fastest train of the country, ran at a maximum speed of . The maximum speed was increased to between Tughlakabad and Agra Cantonment on 15-February-2006, and it was the fastest train in India till the introduction of the Gatiman Express in 2016 and was reverted to 130 km/h from 24-June-2024 citing KAVACH Works and Track Upgrades and Accidents Relating to Kaziranga Derailments.

Facilities Shatabdi Express trains offer fast connectivity between major cities with only a few intermediate stops and can run at a maximum speed of . Passengers are provided with on-board catering. Onboard entertainment systems are available in select trains providing content via satellite. Seats in Shatabdi Express have to be reserved in advance as there is no unreserved accommodation, unlike most of the other trains in India. Reservation is allowed until up to 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time and the seats are auto allocated by the reservation system. Dynamic pricing is applicable on the fares.

Rolling stock

As Shatabdi Express are day-trains and return to the station of origin the same day, coaches have only seats and not berths. They are fully air-conditioned and the trains have multiple AC Chair Car coaches and most of them have one or two coaches of Executive Class seating. Indian Railways offers Anubhuti class seating and Vistadome coaches offering large windows, transparent roofing, and rotatable seats in select trains. The trains used to operate on specialized coaches manufactured by Integral Coach Factory, Chennai with the older coaches now been replaced with newer LHB rakes on all the trains. The trains are hauled by various diesel or electric locomotives diesel locomotives like WDP-4 , WDG-4 , WDM-3A , WDM-3D and a new specialized high speed locomotive class WAP-7HS and WAP-5 with a maximum speed of for hauling Shatabdi express trains was introduced in 2019.

Services Active , there are 22 operational pairs of Shatabdi express trains. (consists of 21 standard Shatabdi Express and 1 Gatimaan Express). +List of active servicesSr. no.RouteTrain no.Originating StationTerminal StationOperatorDistanceDurationAvg Speed (Km/h)Year introducedStops1Rani Kamalapati – New Delhi12001/12002Rani KamalapatiNew DelhiNR8h 40m1988Bhopal Jn.,Bina Jn.,Lalitpur Jn., Jhansi Jn., Gwalior Jn., , Dholpur Jn., Agra Cantt., Mathura Jn.2Lucknow–New Delhi12003/12004Lucknow Jn.New DelhiNR6h 50m1989, , Etawah Jn., Tundla Jn., Aligarh Jn., Ghaziabad Jn.3New Delhi–Kalka12005/12006New DelhiKalkaNR4h 0m1989Panipat Jn., Kurukshetra Jn., Ambala Cantt. Jn., Chandigarh Jn.4MGR Chennai Central–Mysuru12007/12008MGR Chennai CentralMysuru Jn.SR7h 7m1994Katpadi Jn., KSR Bengaluru 5Mumbai Central–Ahmedabad12009/12010Mumbai CentralAhmedabad Jn.WR6h 27m1994, , , Bharuch Jn., Vadodara Jn., Anand Jn., Nadiad Jn.6New Delhi–Kalka12011/12012New DelhiKalkaNR4h 0m1994Sonipat Jn., Panipat Jn., Kurukshetra Jn., Ambala Cantt. Jn., Chandigarh Jn.7New Delhi–Amritsar12013/12014New DelhiAmritsar Jn.NR6h 21m1994Ambala Cantt. Jn., , , , Jalandhar City Jn., Beas Jn.8New Delhi–Daurai12015/12016New DelhiDauraiNR7h 20m1994Delhi Cantt., , Rewari Jn., Alwar Jn., Bandikui Jn., Gandhinagar, Jaipur Jn., 9New Delhi–Dehradun12017/12018New DelhiDehradunNR6h 3m1995Ghaziabad Jn., Meerut City Jn., , Saharanpur Jn., , 10Howrah–Ranchi12019/12020Howrah Jn.Ranchi Jn.ER7h 22m1995, , , , , , 11Pune–Secunderabad12025/12026Pune Jn.Secunderabad Jn.CR8h 22m2011, , Wadi Jn., , Vikarabad Jn., 12KSR Bengaluru - MGR Chennai Central12027/12028MGR Chennai CentralKSR BengaluruSWR4h 57m2005Katpadi Jn., Jolarpettai Jn., Bengaluru Cantt.13New Delhi–Amritsar12029/12030New DelhiAmritsar Jn.NR6h 5m1998Ambala Cantt. Jn., Rajpura Jn., , , Jalandhar City Jn., Beas Jn.14New Delhi–Amritsar12031/12032New DelhiAmritsar Jn.NR6h 5m1997Ambala Cantt. Jn., Rajpura Jn., , , Jalandhar City Jn., Beas Jn.15Kanpur Central–New Delhi12033/12034Kanpur CentralNew DelhiNCR5h 15m2010 , , Ghaziabad Jn.16Kathgodam–New Delhi12039/12040KathgodamNew DelhiNR5h 42m2012 , Lalkuan Jn., , , , Ghaziabad Jn.17 Howrah–New Jalpaiguri12041/12042Howrah Jn.New Jalpaiguri Jn.NFR8h 20m2012Bardhaman Jn., , New Farakka Jn., , 18 New Delhi–Chandigarh12045/12046New DelhiChandigarh Jn.NR3h 20m2013 Ambala Cantt. Jn., 19 Hazrat Nizamuddin–Virangana Lakshmibai Jhansi Junction12049/12050NizamuddinJhansiNR4h 25m2016 Hazrat Nizamuddin., 20 Naharlagun–Guwahati12087/12088NaharlagunGuwahatiNFR5h 47m2017 Harmuti Jn., , Rangapara North Jn., , Rangiya Jn. etc..21 MGR Chennai Central–Coimbatore12243/12244MGR Chennai CentralCoimbatore Jn.SR6h 52m2013Katpadi Jn., Jolarpettai Jn., Salem Jn., Erode Jn., 22 Howrah – Puri12277/12278Howrah Jn.PuriECoR7h 50m2013 Kharagpur Jn., , , , ,

Defunct +List of defunct servicesRoute #Train no.Originating StationTerminal StationYear of IntroductionYear of TerminationReferenceBangalore City – Hubli Jn.2025/2026Bangalore CityHubli Jn.19951996Chennai Central – Coimbatore Jn.2023/2024Chennai CentralCoimbatore Jn.19952000Rajahmundry – Secunderabad Jn.RajahmundrySecunderabad Jn.19992000New Delhi - Patiala – Bathinda #New DelhiBathinda2003New Delhi – BareillyNew DelhiBareilly2003Howrah – Rourkela (Later short terminated at Tatanagar)2021/2022HowrahRourkela (Later short terminated at Tatanagar)19952003Howrah – Patna2023/2024HowrahPatna Jn.20012003Mumbai – Pune2027/2028Mumbai CSMTPune Jn.19952004Jaipur – Agra Fort12035/12036JaipurAgra Fort20122018New Delhi – Rhotak - Ludhiana #12037/12038New DelhiLudhiana Jn.20112019New Delhi – Rhotak - Moga #12043/12044New DelhiMoga20122019New Delhi – Firozpur, up to Bathinda during introduction12047/12048New DelhiFirozpur Cantt.20142021Guwahati – Dibrugarh12085/12086GuwahatiDibrugarh20172020 # Name of an intermediate station may be written if the route is not the shortest or to distinguish between more than one Shatabdi route irrespective of present and past routes.

Trivia

For many years, the Bhopal Shatabdi Express (now Rani Kamalapati - New Delhi Shatabdi Express) held the record for the fastest train in India, reaching speeds of up to 150 km/h on certain stretches, particularly between Tughlakabad and Agra. Unlike most long-distance Indian trains, Shatabdi Express trains are designed exclusively for day travel. This means they only have seating arrangements (Chair Car and Executive Chair Car) and no sleeping berths. The MGR Chennai Central–Mysuru Shatabdi Express (launched in 1994) holds the distinction of being the first Shatabdi Express to operate in South India. Gatiman Express is also such type of a train but faster than Shatabdi Train where infrastructure is available that had a difference of yellow stripes in all its coaches, and has fare slightly higher than that of Shatabdi Express. Howrah–Digha Super AC Express, completely a Shatabdi Express type train having other name instead of "Shatabdi Express" after conversion from a Duronto Express of year 2010 to 2015 was suspended during COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and was withdrawn later without making any journey since that suspension period.

See also

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