Shatabdi Express

Shatabdi Express are a series of Superfast [Express trains in India|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, with the Rani Kamalapati–New Delhi Shatabdi Express achieving the maximum permissible speed of.

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.

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 and a new specialized high speed locomotive class WAP-7HS with a maximum speed of for hauling Shatabdi express trains was introduced in 2019.

Services

Active

, there are 21 operational pairs of Shatabdi express trains.

Sr. no.	Route	Train no.	Originating Station	Terminal Station	Operator	Distance	Duration	Avg Speed	Year introduced	Stops
1	Rani Kamalapati – New Delhi	12001/12002	Rani Kamalapati	New Delhi	NR		8h 40m		1988	Bhopal Jn.,Bina Jn.,Lalitpur Jn., Jhansi Jn., Gwalior Jn.,, Dholpur Jn., Agra Cantt., Mathura Jn.
2	Lucknow–New Delhi	12003/12004	Lucknow Jn.	New Delhi	NR		6h 50m		1989	,, Etawah Jn., Tundla Jn., Aligarh Jn., Ghaziabad Jn.
3	New Delhi–Kalka	12005/12006	New Delhi	Kalka	NR		4h 0m		1989	Panipat Jn., Kurukshetra Jn., Ambala Cantt. Jn., Chandigarh Jn.
4	MGR Chennai Central–Mysuru	12007/12008	MGR Chennai Central	Mysuru Jn.	SR		7h 7m		1994	Katpadi Jn., KSR Bengaluru
5	Mumbai Central–Ahmedabad	12009/12010	Mumbai Central	Ahmedabad Jn.	WR		6h 27m		1994	,,, Bharuch Jn., Vadodara Jn., Anand Jn., Nadiad Jn.
6	New Delhi–Kalka	12011/12012	New Delhi	Kalka	NR		4h 0m		1994	Sonipat Jn., Panipat Jn., Kurukshetra Jn., Ambala Cantt. Jn., Chandigarh Jn.
7	New Delhi–Amritsar	12013/12014	New Delhi	Amritsar Jn.	NR		6h 21m		1994	Ambala Cantt. Jn.,,,, Jalandhar City Jn., Beas Jn.
8	New Delhi–Daurai	12015/12016	New Delhi	Daurai	NR		7h 20m		1994	Delhi Cantt.,, Rewari Jn., Alwar Jn., Bandikui Jn., Gandhinagar, Jaipur Jn.,
9	New Delhi–Dehradun	12017/12018	New Delhi	Dehradun	NR		6h 3m		1995	Ghaziabad Jn., Meerut City Jn.,, Saharanpur Jn.,,
10	Howrah–Ranchi	12019/12020	Howrah Jn.	Ranchi Jn.	ER		7h 22m		1995	,,,,,,
11	Pune–Secunderabad	12025/12026	Pune Jn.	Secunderabad Jn.	CR		8h 22m		2011	,, Wadi Jn.,, Vikarabad Jn.,
12	Chennai–Bengaluru	12027/12028	MGR Chennai Central	KSR Bengaluru	SWR		4h 57m		2005	Katpadi Jn., Jolarpettai Jn., Bengaluru Cantt.
13	New Delhi–Amritsar	12029/12030	New Delhi	Amritsar Jn.	NR		6h 5m		1998	Ambala Cantt. Jn., Rajpura Jn.,,, Jalandhar City Jn., Beas Jn.
14	New Delhi–Amritsar	12031/12032	New Delhi	Amritsar Jn.	NR		6h 5m		1997	Ambala Cantt. Jn., Rajpura Jn.,,, Jalandhar City Jn., Beas Jn.
15	Kanpur Central–New Delhi	12033/12034	Kanpur Central	New Delhi	NCR		5h 15m		2010	,, Ghaziabad Jn.
16	Kathgodam–New Delhi	12039/12040	Kathgodam	New Delhi	NR		5h 42m		2012	, Lalkuan Jn.,,,, Ghaziabad Jn.
17	Howrah–New Jalpaiguri	12041/12042	Howrah Jn.	New Jalpaiguri Jn.	NFR		8h 20m		2012	Bardhaman Jn.,, New Farakka Jn.,,
18	New Delhi–Chandigarh	12045/12046	New Delhi	Chandigarh Jn.	NR		3h 20m		2013	Ambala Cantt. Jn.,
19	Naharlagun–Guwahati	12087/12088	Naharlagun	Guwahati	NFR		5h 47m		2017	Harmuti Jn.,, Rangapara North Jn.,, Rangiya Jn. etc..
20	MGR Chennai Central–Coimbatore	12243/12244	MGR Chennai Central	Coimbatore Jn.	SR		6h 52m		2013	Katpadi Jn., Jolarpettai Jn., Salem Jn., Erode Jn.,
21	Howrah – Puri	12277/12278	Howrah Jn.	Puri	ECoR		7h 50m		2013	Kharagpur Jn.,,,,,

Defunct

# 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 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 and no sleeping berths.
The MGR Chennai Central–Mysuru Shatabdi Express 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.