The 12839 / 12840 Howrah–Chennai Mail is a mail train of

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

connecting

Howrah Junction Howrah railway station, also known as Howrah Junction, is a railway station located in the city of Howrah, West Bengal, India. It is also the oldest and largest existing railway complex in India. It is one of the busiest train stations in the w ...

and

Chennai Central Chennai Central (station code: MAS, short for ''Madras''), officially known as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station, is the main railway terminus in the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is the busiest railwa ...

. It connects three

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a ty ...

cities of India,

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...

and

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura submarine museu ...

. It also runs via some major cities of India like

Bhubaneswar Bhubaneswar (; ) is the capital and largest city of the States and territories of India, Indian state of Odisha. The region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Ekamra Kshetra'' (area (''kshetra'') adorned with mango tr ...

Vijayawada Vijayawada, formerly known as Bezawada, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and is a part of the state's Capital Region. It is the administrative headquarters of the NTR district. Its metropolitan region comprises N ...

, etc.

History

The train made its inaugural run on 15 August 1900, which makes it one of the oldest running trains on Indian Railways. It was first hauled by steam engines, including the WP class engines, then by diesel, and now by electric

WAP-4 The Indian locomotive class WAP-4 is a class of 25 kV AC electric locomotives that was developed in 1993 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), AC Current (A), Passenger traffic (P) ...

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 ...

locomotives. It was the first passenger train to be dieselised on South Eastern Railway, in 1964/65. Till the introduction of the

Coromandel Express The Coromandel Superfast Express is one of the flagship trains of the Indian Railways. The daily train runs down the east coast of India between Shalimar, West Bengal, and MGR Chennai Central, Tamil Nadu. Most people travelling to Chennai pre ...

in the mid seventies, it was the main and fastest train link between Howrah and Chennai (then Madras) with much fewer halts. Presently, this train is the second most important train on the

Howrah–Chennai main line The Howrah–Chennai main line is a railway line connecting Chennai and Kolkata cutting across Eastern Coastal Plains of India. It covers a distance of across, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Sections The long trunk line ...

after the high speed

. It covers at an

average speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quantity. ...

Rakes

* 1 First class AC * 3 AC Two Tier * 8 AC Three Tier * 5 Sleeper class * 1 Pantry car * 2 General Unreserved * 1 End on Generation car (EOG) * 1 Sitting luggage cum brake van (SLR)

Route

Important stations through which it passes are , , , , ,

Berhampur Brahmapur (; also known as Berhampur) is a city on the eastern coastline of Ganjam district of the Indian state of Odisha. Bramhapur is most famous for its street food, silk sarees or pato sarees, temples and many historical places. Bramhapur a ...

, , Srikakulam Road railway station , , , , , , , , .

References

Express trains in India Mail trains in India Rail transport in Andhra Pradesh Rail transport in Odisha Rail transport in Tamil Nadu Rail transport in West Bengal Railway services introduced in 1900 Transport in Chennai Rail transport in Howrah {{India-express-train-stub