Shatabdi Express
Series of Express day train in India
- 3 min read
- 5 chapters
Related on Lably
Through Jawaharlal Nehru
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 140 km/h (87 mph). The maximum speed was increased to 150 km/h (93 mph) 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 and was reverted to 130 km/h From 24 June 2024 Citing KAVACH Works and Track Upgrades and Accidents Relating to Kaziranga Derailments.
Sign in to keep reading
4 more chapters are free with a Lably account.
Facilities
Shatabdi Express trains offer fast connectivity between major cities with only a few intermediate stops and can run at a maximum speed of 150 km/h (93 mph). 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 diesel locomotives like WDP-4 , WDG-4 , WDM-3A , WDM-3D and a new specialized high speed locomotive class WAP-7HS and WAP-5 with a maximum speed of 180 km/h (110 mph) for hauling Shatabdi express trains was introduced in 2019.
Services
Active
As of April 2025, there are 22 operational pairs of Shatabdi express trains. (consists of 21 standard Shatabdi Express and 1 Gatimaan Express).
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 (now Rani Kamalapati - New Delhi 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 (Chair Car and Executive Chair Car) and no sleeping berths.
- The MGR Chennai Central–Mysuru Shatabdi Express (launched in 1994) 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.