The 12839 / 12840 Howrah-Chennai Mail is a

mail train Many countries have had dedicated railway services for the delivery of postal mail. Examples include: * In Australia, the Travelling post office, Queensland * In Austria, the (1850–2004) * In France, the (1984–2015) were rail cars built s ...

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 ...

connecting

Howrah Junction Howrah railway station (also known as Howrah Junction) is a railway station located in the city of Howrah, of Kolkata Metropolitan Area, West Bengal, India. It is the largest and busiest railway complex in India, as well as one of the busie ...

and

Chennai Central Chennai Central (officially Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station, formerly Madras Central) (station code: MAS), is an NSG–1 category Indian railway station in Chennai railway division of Southern Railway zone ...

. It connects three

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

cities of India,

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 ...

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

and

Visakhapatnam Visakhapatnam (; List of renamed places in India, formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in the States and union territories of India, Indian stat ...

. It also runs via some major cities of India like

Bhubaneswar Bhubaneswar () is the capital and the largest city of the States and territories of India, Indian state of Odisha. It is located in the Khordha district. The suburban region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Chakra ...

Vijayawada Vijayawada ( ), formerly known by its colonial name Bezawada, is the second largest city and a major commercial hub in the Andhra Pradesh state of India. The city forms an integral part of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region and is situated on th ...

, etc. The second-most preferred train to the south after

Coromandel Express The Coromandel Express is a superfast express train of Indian Railways. The train runs down the east coast of India between Shalimar railway station, West Bengal, and M. G. R Chennai Central railway station, Tamil Nadu. The train service is ...

History

The train made its inaugural run on August 15, 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) l ...

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 dieselized on the South Eastern Railway in 1964–65. Till the introduction of the

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 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 non-negative scalar quantity. Intro ...

Rakes

* 1 AC First Class (H1) * 2 AC Two Tier (2A, A1-2) * 8 AC Three Tier (3A, B1-8) * 3 AC Three Tier Economy (3E, M1-2) * 3 Sleeper class (S1-3) * 1 Pantry car (PC) * 2 General Unreserved (GS) * 1 End on Generation car (EOG) * 1 Sitting luggage cum brake van (SLR)

Route

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

Berhampur Berhampur (; also known as Brahmapur) is a city on the eastern coastline of Odisha, India. Known as the "Silk City" it is the headquarter of Ganjam district, Ganjam district and home to Odisha's one of the major and the oldest railway station ...

, ,

Srikakulam Road railway station Srikakulam is a city and the headquarters of Srikakulam district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Census of India, 2011, census, it has a population of 165,735. There are many other places of Buddhist Tourism such as Salihundam, Kaling ...

, , , , , , , , , .

References

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