Akal Takht Express
The 12317 / 12318 Akal Takht Express is an Indian Railways Express train connecting eastern Indian city of Kolkata with northern Indian city of Amritsar. It is named after the Akal Takht, a central Sikh shrine in Amritsar.
Background
Originally started from Asansol as 2319/2320 Superfast in 1998, in 2000 it was extended to start from Sealdah as 2317/2318 & in 2009, 2317/2318 & 2319/2320 became same train. In 2015, its terminus got changed to Kolkata Terminus. It is a Superfast-class train travelling in 33 hrs 40 mins at an average speed of as 12317 Akal Takht Express & in 32 hrs 50 mins at an average speed of as 12317 Akal Takht Express. It has sleeper, third AC, second AC, first AC, and unreserved types of coaches along with 2 EOG for power. for power. This train has modern LHB coach, however, pantry car facility is was not available with this train until 2020. Now pantry car, on-board catering and e-catering are available.
12317 Route & halts
| Station Code | Station Name | Arrival | Departure |
| KOAA | Kolkata Terminus | --- | 07:40 |
| ASN | Asansol Junction | 10:35 | 10:45 |
| MDP | Madhupur Junction | 12:00 | 12:02 |
| JSME | Jasidh Junction | 12:29 | 12:31 |
| JAJ | Jhajha | 13:11 | 13:13 |
| KIUL | Kiul Junction | 13:57 | 13:59 |
| MKA | Mokama | 14:28 | 14:30 |
| PNC | Patna Saheb | 15:17 | 15:22 |
| PNBE | Patna Junction | 15:55 | 16:05 |
| DDU | Pt DD Upadhyaya Junction | 19:35 | 19:45 |
| BSB | Varanasi Junction | 20:30 | 20:40 |
| SLN | Sultanpur Junction | 22:46 | 22:48 |
| LKO | Lucknow Charbagh NR | 02:43 | 02:53 |
| BE | Bareilly Junction | 06:13 | 06:15 |
| MB | Moradabad Junction | 07:50 | 07:58 |
| NBD | Najibabad Junction | 09:23 | 09:25 |
| SRE | Saharanpur Junction | 11:30 | 11:40 |
| UMB | Ambala Cantt Junction | 12:45 | 12:50 |
| SIR | Sirhind Junction | 13:31 | 13:33 |
| LDH | Ludhiana Junction | 14:28 | 14:38 |
| JUC | Jalandhar City Junction | 15:35 | 15:40 |
| BEAS | Beas Junction | 16:12 | 16:14 |
| ASR | Amritsar Junction | 17:20 | --- |
12318 Route & Halts
| Station Code | Station Name | Arrival | Departure |
| ASR | Amritsar Junction | --- | 05:55 |
| BEAS | Beas Junction | 06:32 | 06:34 |
| JUC | Jalandhar City Junction | 07:10 | 07:15 |
| LDH | Ludhiana Junction | 08:12 | 08:22 |
| SIR | Sirhind Junction | 09:22 | 09:24 |
| UMB | Ambala Cantt Junction | 10:05 | 10.10 |
| SRE | Saharanpur Junction | 11:30 | 11:40 |
| NBD | Najibabad Junction | 13:08 | 13:10 |
| MB | Moradabad Junction | 14:55 | 15:05 |
| BE | Bareilly Junction | 16:35 | 16:40 |
| LKO | Lucknow Charbagh NR | 20:35 | 20:50 |
| SLN | Sultanpur Junction | 23:05 | 23:10 |
| BSB | Varanasi Junction | 01:40 | 01:50 |
| DDU | Pt DD Upadhyaya Junction | 02:20 | 02:40 |
| PNBE | Patna Junction | 05:55 | 06:05 |
| PNC | Patna Saheb | 06:17 | 06:22 |
| MKA | Mokama | 07:24 | 07:26 |
| KIUL | Kiul Junction | 08:05 | 08:07 |
| JAJ | Jhajha | 08:58 | 09:00 |
| JSME | Jasidh Junction | 09:40 | 09:42 |
| MDP | Madhupur Junction | 10:10 | 10:12 |
| ASN | Asansol Junction | 11:33 | 11:43 |
| KOAA | Kolkata Terminus | --- | 14:45 |
Coach composition
The train has standard LHB rakes with max speed of 130 km/h. The train consists of 22 coaches:
- 1 AC I cum AC II Tier
- 1 AC II Tier
- 6 AC III Tier
- 10 Sleeper coaches
- 2 General
- 2 EOG
| Loco | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | | EOG | GEN | GEN | S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | S5 | S6 | S7 | S8 | S9 | S10 | PC | B1 | B2 | B3 | B4 | B5 | A1 | HA1 | EOG |
Traction
As the route is fully electrified, train is hauled by an Howrah / Sealdah-based WAP-7 electric locomotive from Kolkata to Amritsar, and vice versa.
Rake sharing
The train shares its rake with 12315/12316 Ananya Express.