The 12961 / 12962 Avantika Superfast Express is a Superfast train belonging to

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

that runs between and in India. It is a daily service. It operates as train number 12961 from Mumbai Central to Indore and as train number 12962 in the reverse direction.

Gallery

File:Avantika SF Express Three Tier AC.jpg File:AVANTIKA THIRDAC.jpg, AC COACHES File:AVANTIKA SLEEPER.jpg, SLEEPER COACHES File:AVANTIKA EOG.jpg, GENERATOR CAR

Background

When this train was introduced back in 1985 it was called as Bombay–Indore Superfast. Later it was renamed as Avantika Superfast Express. File:Avantika Express - AC 1st Class cum AC 2 tier coach.jpg The name Avantika is from 'Avanti', the former name of

Ujjain Ujjain (, Hindustani language, Hindustani pronunciation: Help:IPA/Hindi and Urdu, �d͡ːʒɛːn is a city in Ujjain district of the States and territories of India, Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the fifth-largest city in Madhya Prad ...

, a historical city located near Indore. This is one of the two Superfast train connections between Indore and Mumbai, the other train is Indore Duronto Express. In February 2019, it was upgraded to

LHB coach Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coach is a passenger coach of Indian Railways that is developed by Linke-Hofmann-Busch of Germany (renamed Alstom LHB GmbH in 1998 after the takeover by Alstom and now known as Alstom Transport Deutschland) and mostly ...

Coaches

Coach composition may be amended at the discretion of Indian Railways depending on demand. In February 2019, it was upgraded to

from

ICF coach The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) coach was a conventional passenger coach used on the majority of main-line trains in India. The design of the coach was developed by Integral Coach Factory, Perambur, Chennai, India in collaboration with the Sw ...

. *Note – The coach composition shown here is for 12961 (Mumbai to Indore).For 12962 (Indore to Mumbai) the composition will be flipped.

Service

It is a daily train & covers the distance of 829 kilometres in 12 hours 10 mins as 12961 Avantika Express (68 km/hr) & 13 hours 5 mins as 12962 Avantika Express (64 km/hr).

Schedule

Locomotive link

When Avantika Superfast was first introduced it was hauled by

WDM-2 The Indian locomotive class WDM-2 is a class of diesel-electric locomotive that was developed in 1962 by American Locomotive Company (ALCO) for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), Diesel (D), Mixed traffic (M) engine, ...

for whole journey. After some time,

WCAM-1 The Indian locomotive class WCAM-1 is a class of Bi-current (25 kV AC and 1.5 kV DC) electric locomotives that was developed in 1973 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), DC Current ...

became its regular link from Mumbai Central till Ujjain, After Ujjain WDM-2 hauled it complete its journey to Indore. When Mumbai's WR was converted into AC current,

WAP-4 The Indian locomotive class WAP-4 is a class of 25 kV AC electric locomotives that was developed in 1993 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), AC Current (A), Passenger traffic (P) ...

took incharge of Avantika till Ujjain. After sometime Ujjain–Indore line got electrified and WAP-4 hauled it for whole journey. After some years, Avantika SuperFast got India's fastest locomotive

WAP-5 The Indian locomotive class WAP-5 is the name of a class of "High Speed" electric locomotives produced and used by Indian Railways. The first 10 locomotives were imported from ABB in Switzerland in 1995. They are supposed to be a variant of th ...

for its regular link. When Avantika SuperFast got upgraded into

in 2018 February, its regular link also got upgraded into

WAP-7 The Indian locomotive class WAP-7 is a class of 25 Volt, kV Alternating current, AC Electric locomotive, electric locomotives that was developed in 1999 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) for Indian Railways. The model name stands for 5 ft 6 ...

(usually HOG mode). *All the diesel locomotives were provided by Ratlam Loco Shed (RTM) *All the DC-traction electric locomotives were provided by Valsad Loco Shed (BL) *All the AC-traction electric locomotives are provided by Vadodara Loco Shed (BRC) File:RTM based WDM-2A loco - 16813 at Vadodara.jpg File:Pune bound 11095 (ADI-PUNE) Ahimsa Express.jpg

References

External links

Avantika Express
India Rail Info *https://expresstrainroute.com/trains/12961-avantika-sf-express {{DEFAULTSORT:Avantika Express Express trains in India Rail transport in Madhya Pradesh Rail transport in Gujarat Rail transport in Maharashtra Transport in Mumbai Transport in Indore Transport in Ujjain 1985 establishments in Maharashtra Railway services introduced in 1985 Named passenger trains of India