The Howrah–New Jalpaiguri ''Shatabdi Express'' is a Shatabdi class train of Indian Railways connecting

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

and

Siliguri Siliguri, ) is a major tier-II city in West Bengal. It forms "Twin Cities" with the neighboring district capital of Jalpaiguri. The city spans areas of the Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts in the Indian state of West Bengal. Known as the ' ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

's two most important cities. It is the second fastest train after

Howrah–New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express The 22301/22302 Howrah–New Jalpaiguri ''Vande Bharat Express'' is India's 7th Vande Bharat Express train, connecting the capital of West Bengal, Kolkata with Siliguri, the largest city in northern West Bengal via Shantiniketan, Malda Town O ...

in the Howrah –

New Jalpaiguri New Jalpaiguri Junction railway station (station code NJP) established in 1960, is an A1 category broad gauge and narrow-gauge railway station under Katihar railway division of Northeast Frontier Railway zone. It is the largest as well as the ...

section covering a distance of 561 km (chargeable distance may be different but it is same when it is being written) in a span of about 8 hours. HWH_NJP_Shatabdi

Overview

West Bengal chief minister

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 20 ...

and the then railway minister

Mukul Roy Mukul Roy (born 17 April 1954) is an Indian politician from West Bengal belonging to the All India Trinamool Congress. He has also served as a Minister of State in the Shipping Ministry and later Ministry of Railways during the second UPA gov ...

flagged it off from New Jalpaiguri Junction railway station on 12 July 2012, though this train was passed in

Railway Budget Railway budget of India was the Annual Financial Statement of the state-owned Indian Railways, which handles rail transport in India. It was presented every year by the Minister of Railways, representing the Ministry of Railways, in the Parliam ...

2012–13 by the then Railway Minister

Dinesh Trivedi Dinesh Trivedi (born 4 June 1950) is an Indian politician. He was a Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from West Bengal and a former Member of parliament, Lok Sabha (2009–2019) representing Barrackpore constituency of West Bengal. Prior t ...

. The train carried nine AC Chair Cars and one AC Executive Chair Car. The train belongs to the

Northeast Frontier Railway zone The Northeast Frontier Railway (abbreviated NFR) is one of the 19 railway zones of the Indian Railways. It is headquartered in Maligaon, Guwahati in the state of Assam, and responsible for operation and expansion of rail network all across No ...

of Indian Railways. Before the electrification of Jalpaiguri-Howrah stretch, this Shatabdi Express was the fastest Diesel Locomotive hauled train of Indian Railways having its diesel link of class

WDP-4 The EMD GT46PAC or WDP4 is a passenger-hauling diesel-electric locomotive with AC electric transmission designed by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and built by both GM-EMD and under license by Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW) of Varanasi ...

WDP-4B The EMD GT46PAC or WDP4 is a passenger-hauling diesel-electric locomotive with AC electric transmission designed by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and built by both GM-EMD and under license by Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW) of Varanasi, ...

WDP-4D The EMD GT46PAC or WDP4 is a passenger-hauling diesel-electric locomotive with AC electric transmission designed by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and built by both GM-EMD and under license by Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW) of Varanasi, ...

provided by Siliguri Junction (SGUJ) DLS. On 10 January 2020 the traction of the train was changed to electric and the regular link was changed to class

WAP-7 The Indian locomotive class WAP-7 is a class of 25 kV AC electric locomotives that was developed in 1999 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), AC Current (A), Passenger traffic ...

Howrah Junction Howrah railway station, also known as Howrah Junction, is a railway station located in the city of Howrah, West Bengal, India. It is also the oldest and largest existing railway complex in India. It is one of the busiest train stations in the w ...

(HWH) ELS. This is a very popular train on the Howrah - New Jalpaiguri route. It links the capital city of

with the largest city in North Bengal,

traversing through various other important places in the state.

Amenities

This train has

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 mostl ...

, providing reclining seats, on-board meals are available and are included in the ticket fare. On 10 March 2018, it was upgraded to the Swarna Standards of Indian Railways.

Speed

Its all coaches are of air conditioned

type which is capable of reaching 160 kmph but it does not touch. Sometimes people become confused because according to Indian Railways Permanent Way Manual (IRPWM) on Indian Railways website or Indian Railway Institute of Civil Engineering website, the BG (Broad Gauge) lines have been classified into six groups ‘A’ to ‘E’ on the basis of the future maximum permissible speeds but it may not be same as present speed. The maximum permissible speed of the train and route is 130 kmph between Howrah and Khana which is about 108 km part via Dankuni of Howrah - New Delhi rout

and speed is less in the rest part and the speed in rest part is same as maximum speed of the route which is 110 kmph over KAN-BDAG (Khana - Bonidanga

presently unknown but 100 kmph in 2011 between Bonidanga (after Gumani - GMAN) and Malda Town (MLD

45 Km long part, 110 kmph between Malda Town and New Jalpaiguri which is a part of Guwahati – Malda Town route having 110 kmph sectional spee

which will be increased to 130 kmph between Malda Town and New Jalpaiguri by March 202

h1>

Route & halts

The intermediate stations and the stoppage time are as follows- # (Starts) # (2 minutes) # (2 minutes) # (1 minute) # (5 minutes) # (1 minute) # (2 minutes) # (Ends)

Schedule

The schedule of this 12041/12042 New Jalpaipuri Jn - Howrah Jn Shatabdi Express is given below:-

Notes

References