The Satpura Express was a daily express train which ran between

Jabalpur Junction Jabalpur Junction railway station (Station Code: JBP), is an A1 category railway station of Jabalpur City in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Jabalpur is the zonal and divisional headquarters of West Central Railway. It is located on the ...

railway station of

Jabalpur Jabalpur, formerly Jubbulpore, is a city situated on the banks of Narmada River in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the 3rd-largest urban agglomeration of the state and the 38th-largest of the country. Jabalpur is the administrative h ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

to another city of the same state, Balaghat Junction.

History

The Satpura Express is a showpiece of the Satpura Railway. It used to travel a run of from Jabalpur to Balaghat in a little less than seven hours. Earlier this train ran from

Gondia Gondia (also spelled as Gondiya, Marathi pronunciation: �on̪d̪iaː is a city and headquarters of eponymous Gondia District in Maharashtra, India. Gondia is also known as ''Rice City'' due to the abundance of rice mills in the area. Gondi ...

; with a Steam Loco of ZE Class but then a diesel locomotive of ZDM Class is replaced and have much more power. However, after the gauge conversion the section from

Balaghat Balaghat is a city and a municipality in Balaghat district, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Balaghat District. Wainganga River flows beside the town. The nearest airport is Birsi (Gondia). The he ...

and

Katangi Katangi is a city and a municipal council, near the city of Balaghat in Balaghat District in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Geography Katangi has an average elevation of 442 metres (1,450 feet). Transport Katangi has connectivity ...

is converted to

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ...

and the train was limited up to Balaghat.

Number and nomenclature

The number provided for the train is: * 10001 – Balaghat Jn. to Jabalpur Jn. * 10002 – Jabalpur Jn. to Balaghat Jn. The name ''Satpura'' signifies the hill valley range of

Satpura The Satpura Range, formerly also known as the Seeonee Hills, is a range of hills in central India. The range rises in eastern Gujarat running east through the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and ends in Chhattisgarh. The range paral ...

Arrival and departure Info

*Train no.10001 departs from Balaghat Jn. daily at 12.45 hrs. reaching Jabalpur Jn. at 19.35 hrs. *Train no.10002 departs from Jabalpur Jn. daily at 05.30 hrs. reaching Balaghat Jn. at 12.10 hrs.

Route and halts

The Jabalpur–Balaghat–Jabalpur Satpura Express runs daily connecting four districts of Madhya Pradesh:

Seoni Seoni, formerly spelled Seeonee, is a city and a municipality in Seoni district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. This tribal household dominated district was formed in the year 1956. Rudyard Kipling used the forests of the Satpura Ran ...

Mandla Mandla is a city with municipality in Mandla district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Mandla District. The city is situated in a loop of the Narmada River, which surrounds it on three sides, and ...

and

. The stations en route are Balaghat Jn., Samnapur, Charegaon, Lamta, Nagarwara, Nainpur Jn., Pindrai, Ghansor, Shikara, Bargi, Howbagh Jabalpur, Jabalpur Jn. Total distance of 187 km.

Coach composition

The train has 10 coaches in which 8 coaches are unreserved and a luggage van and the train has the accommodation of one reserved first class coach with seats for 14 people. This is unique in

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

in India.

Average speed and frequency

The train runs with an average speed of 42 km/hour on daily basis from both the sites

Trivia

* It is one of the oldest trains of Indian Railways * It is the first train service started in Central India * This train is the only Express train of Balaghat

Other train

Two other pairs of passenger trains run in the old

from

in the state of

, India.

References

{{Railways in Central India Defunct trains in India Balaghat Rail transport in Madhya Pradesh Transport in Jabalpur