Shatabdi Express

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Passengers boarding the Shatabdi express train at Bhopal Habibganj Railway Station of Bhopal City for New Delhi.
Interior view of a Shatabdi Express AC Chair Car

Shatabdi Express trains (Hindi: शताब्दी एक्सप्रेस) are a series of fast (called superfast in India) passenger trains operated by Indian Railways to connect Metro cities with other cities important for tourism, pilgrimage or business. Shatabdi Express are day-trains and they return to the station of origin the same day.

The Shatabdis are among the fastest trains in India and the Indian Railways considers them as prestigious. The Shatabdi Express trains run over short to medium distances while the Rajdhani Expresses are long-distance trains connecting the nation's capital New Delhi to capitals of states. Both series of trains have a regular speed of 100-130 km/h. The 2001 Bhopal Shatabdi Express, however, runs at a peak speed of 150 km/h, which makes it the fastest train in India.

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[edit] History

The word "Shatabdi" means centenary in Sanskrit, Hindi and several Indian languages. The first Shatabdi train was started in 1988 to commemorate the centenary of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru's Birthday (the First Prime Minister of India) by Madhav Rao Scindia, minister for railways. It operated from New Delhi to Gwalior, later extended to Jhansi Jn. railway station, then finally to Bhopal Jn.. It is now known as the Bhopal Shatabdi Express.

[edit] Train

The Bhopal Shatabdi is the fastest train in India and it runs at an average speed of around 93 km/h (Please see : Fastest trains in India) between the origin and the destination though it runs at speeds at 150 km/h on some stretches between Agra and New Delhi stations.

The Shatabdi in certain circumstances, has advantages over the other trains when it comes to receiving priority and berthing at one of the best platforms at the stations it stops at (generally platform number 1 at most of the stations).

[edit] Related trains

A variant of the Shatabdi Express, Swarna Shatabadi Express, is considered more luxurious by Indian Railway.

Indian Railways later introduced a lower-priced version Jan-Shatabdi Expresses, which are nearly all without air-conditioning and much more affordable.

The railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav had also introduced Garib Rath (chariot of the poor). These are fast trains (like the Rajdhani and Shatabdi), are fully Air-Conditioned (useful to combat the heat and dust of India) and with lower fares. These trains are quite successful and compete with low cost airlines on some long-distance routes.

[edit] Service

The train was considered a landmark when it was introduced in India in 1988. It was criticized heavily by a section of society for its luxury in a poor country.

Shatabdi Express trains offer fast connectivity with only a few intermediate stops. They are fully air-conditioned and of a much higher standard than most Indian trains. Shatabdi Express travelers are provided with snacks, breakfast, meals, coffee or tea, a one-litre water bottle and a glass of canned juice.

Berths and seats in Shatabdi Express and Rajdhani Express trains have to be reserved in advance before boarding the train. There is no unreserved accommodation in these trains, unlike most of the other trains in India. A few Shatabdis have a current booking system where tickets can be booked within a couple of hours before departure. However even these have seat numbers indicated on them unlike the normal current booking system on other trains in India where no seat/coach numbers are indicated.

As Shatabdi Express are day-trains and return to the station of origin the same day, most of the coaches on the train have only airconditioned seats (called AC Chair Car or CC) and not berths. All the Shatabdi Express trains have, however, one coach of first class airconditioned seating. These coaches have wider leg room and offer better food compared to the normal Air conditioned seating(CC).

New on board entertainment systems have also been installed on some of these trains where the passengers can view movies and television serials directly via satellite. One of the first services to have this system is the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Shatabdi Express.

[edit] Destinations

Shatabdi Express waiting to leave the station
Shatabdi train bound to leave NDLS station for Lucknow

Indian Railways operated 12 pairs of Shatabdi Expresses as on 1 April 2009. These trains are listed here.

  • Note the Train No. 2031/2032 only run on Tuesdays, while train No. 2029/2030,2027/28 and 2007/2008 runs on all days except Tuesdays.
  • Kanpur Reverse Shatabdi is soon going to be launched.It runs on all days except Sundays. It will be second Shatabdi train for Kanpur.

There are 19 pairs of Jan-Shatabdi Expresses. Jan-Shatabdi Expresses

Some of them are:

  1. Habibganj, South Bhopal-Jabalpur
  2. Bangalore-Hubli
  3. Chennai-Vijayawada
  4. Mumbai CST-Aurangabad
  5. New Delhi-Chandigarh- Una
  6. New Delhi-Dehradun
  7. Mumbai CST-Madgaon
  8. Haridwar-Amritsar
  9. Thiruvananthapuram-Kozhikode
  10. Howrah-Bhubaneshwar
  11. New Delhi-Kalka
  12. Guwahati-Jorhat
  13. Lucknow-New Delhi
  14. Bhopal-New Delhi
  15. Bhopal-Jabalpur
  16. Howrah-Patna
  17. Howrah-Barbil via Tatanagar
  18. Kota-New Delhi- H.Nizamuddin
  19. Coimbatore-Mayiladuthurai

[edit] Future

Some claim that since there is no competition within the passenger services of Indian Railways, little emphasis is given to the improvement of services.

Furthermore, the Indian aviation sector is witnessing stiff competition and various airlines are pushing into the low-cost market on domestic routes, which in turn makes it attractive for the upper segment of rail passengers to shift to air travel. This, along with an inability to maintain a high level of service, makes it increasingly difficult for the Shatabdi and the Rajdhani Express to keep their customers.[1]

Interior (AC 1st coach)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Business Travel Still On Track". FE Business Travel. http://www.businesstravellerindia.com/200603/coverstory01.shtml. 
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