The 12317 / 12318 Akal Takht Express is an Indian Railways Express train connecting eastern Indian city of Kolkata with northern Indian city of Amritsar. It is named after the Akal Takht, a central Sikh shrine in Amritsar.
Background Originally started from Asansol as 2319/2320 Superfast in 1998, in 2000 it was extended to start from Sealdah as 2317/2318 & in 2009, 2317/2318 & 2319/2320 became same train. In 2015, its terminus got changed to Kolkata Terminus. It is a Superfast-class train travelling in 33 hrs 40 mins at an average speed of as 12317 Akal Takht Express & in 32 hrs 50 mins at an average speed of as 12317 Akal Takht Express. It has sleeper, third AC, second AC, first AC, and unreserved types of coaches along with 2 EOG for power. for power. This train has modern LHB coach, however, pantry car facility was not available with this train until 2020. Now pantry car, on-board catering and e-catering are available.
12317 Route & halts
Station Code Station Name Arrival Departure KOAA Kolkata Terminus --- 07:40 ASN Asansol Junction 10:35 10:45 MDP Madhupur Junction 12:00 12:02 JSME Jasidh Junction 12:29 12:31 JAJ Jhajha 13:11 13:13 KIUL Kiul Junction 13:57 13:59 MKA Mokama 14:28 14:30 PNC Patna Saheb 15:17 15:22 PNBE Patna Junction 15:55 16:05 DDU Pt DD Upadhyaya Junction 19:35 19:45 BSB Varanasi Junction 20:30 20:40 SLN Sultanpur Junction 22:46 22:48 LKO Lucknow Charbagh NR 02:43 02:53 BE Bareilly Junction 06:13 06:15 MB Moradabad Junction 07:50 07:58 NBD Najibabad Junction 09:23 09:25 SRE Saharanpur Junction 11:30 11:40 UMB Ambala Cantt Junction 12:45 12:50 SIR Sirhind Junction 13:31 13:33 LDH Ludhiana Junction 14:28 14:38 JUC Jalandhar City Junction 15:35 15:40 BEAS Beas Junction 16:12 16:14 ASR Amritsar Junction 17:20 ---
12318 Route & Halts
Station Code Station Name Arrival Departure ASR Amritsar Junction --- 05:55 BEAS Beas Junction 06:32 06:34 JUC Jalandhar City Junction 07:10 07:15 LDH Ludhiana Junction 08:12 08:22 SIR Sirhind Junction 09:22 09:24 UMB Ambala Cantt Junction 10:05 10.10 SRE Saharanpur Junction 11:30 11:40 NBD Najibabad Junction 13:08 13:10 MB Moradabad Junction 14:55 15:05 BE Bareilly Junction 16:35 16:40 LKO Lucknow Charbagh NR 20:35 20:50 SLN Sultanpur Junction 23:05 23:10 BSB Varanasi Junction 01:40 01:50 DDU Pt DD Upadhyaya Junction 02:20 02:40 PNBE Patna Junction 05:55 06:05 PNC Patna Saheb 06:17 06:22 MKA Mokama 07:24 07:26 KIUL Kiul Junction 08:05 08:07 JAJ Jhajha 08:58 09:00 JSME Jasidh Junction 09:40 09:42 MDP Madhupur Junction 10:10 10:12 ASN Asansol Junction 11:33 11:43 KOAA Kolkata Terminus --- 14:45
Coach composition
The train has standard LHB rakes with max speed of 130 km/h. The train consists of 22 coaches:
1 AC I cum AC II Tier 1 AC II Tier 6 AC III Tier 10 Sleeper coaches 2 General 2 EOG
Loco 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 EOGGENGENS1S2S3S4S5S6S7S8S9S10PCB1B2B3B4B5A1HA1EOG
Traction
As the route is fully electrified, train is hauled by an Howrah Loco Shed / Sealdah Loco Shed-based WAP-7 electric locomotive from Kolkata to Amritsar, and vice versa.
Rake sharing
The train shares its rake with 12315/12316 Ananya Express.
References