Indian Railways is one of the largest rail networks across the world and is operated by the Ministry of Railways, Government of India.
Know about Indian Railways – Types of Coaches, Classes and Facilities.
We now have a look around the types of coaches, classes and facilities offered by Indian railways across the passenger segment.
1. Vande Bharat Express
Vande Bharat Express or Train 18 is the first Loco-Less train which is made in India and is the recent launch by Indian Railways in the semi-high-speed train category.
All coaches in this train are air-conditioned and have facilities such as Wi-Fi and Snack Tables. To provide security for passengers these coaches have CCTV cameras and also fire, smoke detection and extinguishing system to avoid fire accidents.
Also, this train can run at a maximum speed of 200 km/h
This train is also called as Train 18. Currently, this train runs between Delhi and Varanasi stations.
2. Tejas Express
In addition to the above, the train named Tejas Express was introduced by Indian railways under the semi-high-speed category.
This is also fully air-conditioned train have bio-vacuum toilets, water-level indicators, tap sensors, hand dryers, integrated Braille displays, an LED TV for each passenger with a phone jack, local cuisine, Wi-Fi, tea and coffee vending machines, magazines, snack tables, CCTV cameras and a fire and smoke detection and extinguishing system. This train can run at a maximum speed of 200 km/h but currently running at 130 km/h due to safety issues.
3. Gatimaan Express
This train is the first one introduced in the semi-high-speed category which runs at a top speed of 160 km/h. Currently, this train runs only between Delhi and Jhansi stations. Passengers can avail facilities like Wi-Fi, Bio Toilets, Fire Alarms, GPS based passenger information system.
4. Shatabdi Express
Air-conditioned, intercity trains for daytime travel. Unlike the Rajdhani or Duronto Expresses, the Shatabdi expresses make a round trip on the same day. The Bhopal Shatabdi Express (train number 12001/12002) is India’s second-fastest train between New Delhi and Agra, with an average speed of 90 km/h (56 mph) and a top speed of 150 kilometres per hour (93 mph). The limited-stop trains have Wi-Fi.
5. Rajdhani Express
Limited-stop, air-conditioned trains linking state capital to national capital, they have a top speed of 130–140 km/h (81–87 mph). The 2014 railway budget proposed increasing the Rajdhani and Shatabdi Expresses to 180 km/h (110 mph).
6. Duronto Express
Non-stop (except for technical halts) service was introduced in 2009. In January 2016, it became possible to book tickets from those technical stops.
Similarly, they connect India’s metros and major state capitals and were introduced to equal (or exceed) the speed of the Rajdhani Express. With air-conditioned one-, two- and three-tier seating, some have non-air-conditioned sleeper-class accommodations.
7. Humsafar Express
Air-conditioned, three-tier coach trains with LED screens displaying information about stations and train speed, a PA system, vending machines for tea and coffee, charging ports for electronic devices, bio-toilets, smoke alarms, CCTV cameras, curtains and heating and refrigeration facilities for food. The inaugural run was between Gorakhpur to Anand Vihar Terminal.
8. AC Express
Air-conditioned, limited-stop trains linking major cities, with a speed of about 130 km/h (81 mph).
9. Double Decker Express
Air-conditioned, limited-stop, two-tier express trains for daytime travel.
10. Uday Express
Air-conditioned double-decker train for overnight travel.
11. Garib Rath Express
Air-conditioned, economy, three-tier trains with a top speed of 130 km/h (81 mph)
12. Yuva Express
Introduced with the Duronto Express to provide air-conditioned travel to young Indians, 60 per cent of its seats were reserved for passengers between 18 and 45 years of age. The trains were unsuccessful and operate only on the Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai routes.
13. Jan Shatabdi Express
A more economical version of the Shatabdi Express, with air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned classes and a top speed of 110 km/h (68 mph)
14. Sampark Kranti Express
Express service to New Delhi.
15. Kavi Guru Express
Introduced in honour of Rabindranath Tagore, four pairs of trains operate on the network.
16. Vivek Express
Introduced to commemorate the 150th birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda in 2013, four pairs of Vivek Expresses run in the country.
17. Rajya Rani Express
Introduced to connect state capitals to major cities in that state.
18. Mahamana Express
Superfast train with Indian Railways ModelRake coaches.
19. Intercity Express
Introduced to connect major cities on short routes with high and semi-high speeds. Trains include the Deccan Queen, Flying Ranee and Bilaspur Nagpur Intercity Express.
20. Antyodaya Express
Non-reserved, high-speed LHB coaches on peak routes to ease congestion.
21. Jan Sadharan Express
Non-reserved express trains on peak routes to ease congestion.
22. Suvidha Express
These trains under this category are introduced on high demand routes with dynamic pricing where the price of the ticket increases for every 20% of booked tickets. These trains may have completely AC or Mixed of AC and Non-AC Coaches.
23. Superfast Express
Trains under this category run at an average speed of 55-60km/h with few stops.
24. Express
Trains under this category run at an average speed of 35-40km/h with few stops.
25. Mail
Express trains with attached mail coaches are named as Mail or Mail Express which were used in Indian Railways.
26. Passenger
Slow, economical trains which stop at every (or almost every) station on a route generally with unreserved seating. The trains travel at about 40–80 km/h (25-50 mph).
27. Suburban
These trains operate in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Bengaluru, Pune and between Kanpur and Lucknow, but stop at every station, and have unreserved seating.
28. Metro
Designed for urban transport, the first metro was the Kolkata Metro in 1984. There are 300 metro services daily carrying over 700,000 passengers making it the second busiest metro system in India.
29. Mountain Railways
Three of the lines were declared a World Heritage site as Mountain Railways of India by UNESCO.
Where to book tickets for these trains? Indian Railways website details.
Tickets can be booked at the IRCTC website.
Subscribe to our blogs
Thank you for reading this blog.
Also, read our blogs on