The 12317 / 12318 Akal Takht Express is an

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

Express Express, The Expresss or EXPRESS may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''Express: Aisle to Glory'', a 1998 comedy short film featuring Kal Penn * ''The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a 2008 film starring Dennis Quaid * The Expre ...

train connecting eastern Indian city of

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

with northern Indian city of

Amritsar Amritsar, also known as Ambarsar, is the second-List of cities in Punjab, India by population, largest city in the India, Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab, after Ludhiana. Located in the Majha region, it is a major cultural, transportatio ...

. It is named after the

Akal Takht The Akal Takht (; ), also spelt as Akal Takhat and historically known as Akal Bunga, is the most prominent of the Takht (Sikhism), five takhts (Seat (legal entity), seats of authority) of the Sikhs. Located within the Golden Temple, Darbar Sah ...

, a central Sikh shrine in

Background

Originally started from

Asansol Asansol is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the second largest city in West Bengal. It is the 33rd largest urban agglomeration in India by population. Asansol is the district headquarters of Paschim Bardhaman district. Accordi ...

. In 2004 it was extended up to

Sealdah Sealdah is a neighbourhood of Central Kolkata in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Etymology Jackals (''sheal'' in Bengali) howled around Sealdah. Antiquarians identify it as Shrigaldwipa (Jackal Island). Nearby Beliaghata ...

, its terminus got changed to Kolkata in 2014. It is a Express-class train travelling at an average speed of . It has sleeper, third AC, second AC, first AC, and unreserved types of coaches along with 2 EOG for power. This train has modern

LHB coach Linke-Hofmann-Busch (LHB) coach is a passenger coach of Indian Railways that is developed by Linke-Hofmann-Busch of Germany and produced by rail coach manufacturing units at Kapurthala, Chennai and Raebareli. They have been used since 2000 on ...

, however,

pantry car A dining car (American English) or a restaurant car (British English), also a diner, is a passenger railroad car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. These cars provide the highest level of service of any rai ...

facility is not available with this train but on-board catering and e-catering is available.

Route & halts

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

Traction

As the route is fully electrified, train is hauled by an

Howrah Howrah (; ; alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River, opposite to its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively ...

-based

WAP-7 The Indian locomotive class WAP-7 is a class of 25 kV AC electric locomotives that was developed in 1999 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), AC Current (A), Passenger traffic ...

electric locomotive from Kolkata to Amritsar, and vice versa.

Rake sharing

The train shares its rake with 12315/12316

Ananya Express The 12315 / 12316 Ananya Express is an Indian Railways Express-class train running between Kolkata and Udaipur city. It covers a distance of 2134 km at an average speed of 60 km per hour, travelling through the Indian states of West ...

References

Transport in Kolkata Transport in Amritsar Rail transport in Punjab, India Rail transport in West Bengal Rail transport in Jharkhand Rail transport in Uttar Pradesh Rail transport in Bihar Rail transport in Haryana Railway services introduced in 2010 Express trains in India Named passenger trains of India {{India-express-train-stub