Express trains are express rail services of India. Express trains make a small number of stops, unlike ordinary passenger or

local Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

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.

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 ( 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. Maximum Speed for SuperFast Trains:110km/hr.

Mail

Mail trains are the trains which earlier exclusively had

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sys ...

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 Jan Sadharan Express trains are series of passenger services operated by Indian Railways in different routes. These trains are the first generation of fully unreserved express train sets. The second generation is the antyodya express About Ja ...

and

Antyodaya Express Antyodaya Express are series of trains operated by Indian Railways. The word Antyodaya refers to the uplifting of the weakest section of the society. These series of trains are initially supposed to be overnight fully unreserved trains but late ...

are fully Unreserved/General express trains. These trains have all Unreserved/General coaches. 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.

Speed

The average speed of express trains, range from to . 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. Another constraint is the need to accommodate freight trains at the current top speed of 70 km/h. These constraints to speed are consequences of sharing tracks with freight and lower speed suburban passenger trains. The

train stop Part of a railway signalling system, a train stop, trip stop or tripcock (sometimes called a tripper) is a train protection device that automatically stops a train if it attempts to pass a signal when the signal aspect and operating rules pro ...

s 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 New Bongaigaon (; is a city in the Indian state of Assam. The City included or new part of municipal board of Bongaigaon District. The town, divided into two parts – Old Bongaigaon and New Bongaigaon, is situated north west of Guwahati. To ...

Bongaigaon Bongaigaon () is a major city in the Indian state of Assam. Its urban area spans across Bongaigaon and Chirang district. The city also serves as the gateway of the North-East Frontier Railway Zone with its New Bongaigaon Junction railway st ...

on the Howrah–Dibrugarh

Kamrup Express The ''Kamrup Express'' is a daily Express train which connects Howrah (Kolkata) in West Bengal with Dibrugarh, a major town in upper Assam. Originally the train ran between Howrah and Guwahati (which is the district headquarters of Kamrup di ...

, and as long as 528 km between

Vadodara Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capita ...

– Kota on the

Thiruvananthapuram Rajdhani Express The 12431 / 12432 Hazrat Nizamuddin–Thiruvananthapuram Rajdhani Express is a Rajdhani Express train service in India, connecting in the country capital New Delhi to , the capital of Kerala state. It is the longest-running Rajdhani Express t ...

Gallery

File:Gatimaan express.jpg, Gatimaan Express File:Bhopalshatabdi.jpg, Shatabdi Express File:Swarna Jayanti Rajdhani exp.jpg, Rajdhani Express File:Mysore Shatabdi LHB coaches at Mysore Station (1).JPG, Shatabdi Express LHB coach File:22120 Tejas Express - Executive Class coach.jpg, Tejas Express Executive Class coach File:11054 Azamgarh Mumbai LTT Weekly Express - General Deen Dayalu coach.jpg, Unreserved/General Deen Dayalu coach

References

External links

List of All Express and Mail Trains

List of All Superfast Trains
{{Indian Railways, state=collapsed