Trains in India
Indian Railways Train Routes
Look up the various Trains routes listed in an alphabetical order, search for the popular stations and junctions of Indian Railways, this includes the big metro cities and also smaller towns, places of pilgrimage like Varanasi, Tirupati etc, and also important trade centres like Vadodara, Ahmedabad etc.
The fourth largest railway network in the world - Indian Railways operates more than 20,000 passenger trains daily, on both suburban and long-distance routes, from 7,349 stations across India. The Indian Railways carried 8.26 billion passengers by the close of March 2018. Around 20 million passengers travel every day using the network of the Indian Railways. And to cater to such a high demand the railways has to run several trains between stations.
The Indian Railways network is divided into 16 zones. The main railway zones of the Indian Railways are Western, Eastern, Southern, Northern and Central. The 16 zones are categorised into subdivisions, each having its zonal headquarter. The first zone to be established post the independence was the Southern zone. Five more zones were added to the network in 2005 namely: North Central, East Coast, South East Central, South Western and West Central.
The vast network of the Indian railways covers the length and breadth of the country. And to keep a track of the network of trains, a database for trains between two stations is maintained by the railways. It provides the users and passengers with the necessary information on the train status between stations and train routes along with train route map across India.
The availability of information has become ever so easy in the digital age. With an increase in the speed of internet and affordable smart devices, getting information at your fingertips is not a task anymore. You can now search for the train between station whenever you want, anywhere, anytime. And the entire process to get the details on the train between stations is absolutely hassle-free. Simply enter the names of two stations and get the list of information like departure time, arrival time, running days and more.
What to Know About Train Between Stations
An enquiry at the Indian Railways between two stations provides a list of all available trains for a specific route. You can also search about trains between stations through a mobile app, and get an overview of the trains running on a particular route. Users can choose filters on IRCTC according to their preferences. You can only see the list of trains with the reservation on IRCTC Online. There is no list for the non-reserved trains. You can visit eRail.in which has the information on every train being run by the Indian Railways be it reserved, non-reserved and local trains.
Train Status
You can get the live train status for the Indian railways trains with the exact location and real-time delay status. The status might also show the estimated arrival time of the train. You need to keep two things in mind: Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) and Last Reported Location. ETA means the station on which the current live train running status is based on while the Last Reported Station informs whether the train has arrived or departed or crossed the specific station.
ETA shows the time within which the train is expected to arrive at the station. This helps the user or passenger to know when the train is going to arrive at the station and when they should reach the station to board the train. The Last Reported Station could either be a stop or an intermediate station which is usually a station where the train doesn’t stop but passes.
It is estimated that most of the live train status updates for a specific station are notified to the user within 10 minutes of the train arriving or departing the station. It is to be noted that a train delay update for a station may be less than the actual notified time from the last reported station. You need to check the status of the trains between stations every 2-5 minutes as it is updated very frequently. The live status gets more accurate as it nears the ETA.
Follow the steps below to check the train schedule live:
# Type in the train name or number in the search box.# Select Find Train.
# You will now be able to check your train’s timetable live with details like route information, timings, seat availability, and schedule.
Popular routes
Some of the popular rail routes in the Indian Railway network are New Delhi To Mumbai, New Delhi to Ranchi, New Delhi to Patna, Howrah to Puri, New Delhi to Howrah, Patna to New Delhi.
New Delhi to Mumbai:
This is one of the busiest train routes in the country. The New Delhi to Mumbai train journey covers a distance of 1,357 km and 1,542 km, depending on the train route - direct or with stoppages stretching to 16 to 31 hours. There are 35 different trains that run between New Delhi and Mumbai. The earliest is Haridwar-Mumbai Lokmanya Tilak AC Express leaving from Hazrat Nizamuddin station in New Delhi while the last train from New Delhi to Mumbai is Hazrat Nizamuddin-Thiruvananthapuram Central Superfast Express leaving from Hazrat Nizamuddin station as well. A few trains that run from New Delhi to Mumbai are Garib Rath, Rajdhani, Superfast, Duronto, Goa Sampark Kranti Express, Mumbai Rajdhani, and Swaraj Express among others.
Howrah to Puri:
The shortest distance required to cover Howrah and Puri is 494 km and takes somewhere around 7 to 10 hours to complete the route. Currently, there are around 13 trains operating on the route. The earliest train from Howrah to Puri is Dhauli Express departing from Howrah station while the last train is the Kamakhya-Puri Express which also departs from the Howrah station. Some of the popular trains running from Howrah to Puri are Sealdah-Puri Duronto Express, Shatabdi Express, Howrah-Puri Garib Rath Express and more.
Patna to New Delhi:
There are some 20 trains that run from Patna to Delhi. The train which covers the distance of 998 km between the two cities in the shortest time is Rjpb Rajdhani in 12 hours. The slowest train to reach New Delhi from Patna is the Farakka Express which takes around a day to cover 1,060 km making stops in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. The earliest train for the route is the Mahananda EXP and the last is the BGP Ndls EXP. The direct trains running from Patna to Delhi with no stops are S Kranti SUP EX, Vikramshila EXP, Magadh Express, and Poorva Express to name a few.
Useful Links: Indian Railways PNR Status | IRCTC Booking | Indian Railway Enquiry | Indian Railway Train Routes | Indian Railway Train Stations