Netaji SF Express

Netaji Express at Kalka railway station.
Overview
Service type	Superfast Express
Status	Active
Locale	West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab & Haryana
First service	1 July 1866; 158 years ago (1866-07-01)
Current operator(s)	Eastern Railway
Ridership	Daily
Route
Termini	Howrah (HWH) Kalka (KLK)
Stops	38
Distance travelled	1,715 km (1,066 mi)
Average journey time	29 hrs 05 mins as 12311, 32 hrs 10 mins as 12312
Service frequency	Daily
Train number(s)	12311/12312
On-board services
Class(es)	AC first , AC 2 tier, AC 3 tier, Sleeper Class, Unreserved
Seating arrangements	Yes
Sleeping arrangements	Yes
Auto-rack arrangements	Yes
Catering facilities	Available
Observation facilities	Windows
Entertainment facilities	No
Baggage facilities	Available
Other facilities	Below the seats
Technical
Rolling stock	ICF coach
Track gauge	1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in)
Electrification	Fully Electrified
Operating speed	110 km/h (68 mph)
Route map Legend km 267 Kalka Delhi–Kalka line 252 Chandi Mandir 253 Chandigarh 198 Ambala Cantonment 156 Kurukshetra 123 Karnal 89 Panipat 72 Samalkha 59 Ganaur 43 Sonipat 10 Adarsh Nagar 3 Sabji Mandi 0 Delhi Junction Howrah–Gaya–Delhi line 20 Ghaziabad Kanpur–Delhi section 83 Khurja 126 Aligarh Junction 156 Hathras Junction 204 Tundla Junction 221 Firozabad 241 Shikohabad 296 Etawah Junction 352 Phaphund 435 Kanpur Central Mughalsarai–Kanpur section 513 Fatehpur 630 Allahabad Junction 719 Mirzapur 783 Mughalsarai Junction Grand Chord 837 Bhabua Road Gaya–Mughalsarai section 885 Sasaram 902 Dehri-on-Sone 987 Gaya Junction Asansol–Gaya section 1064 Koderma 1112 Hazaribagh Road 1139 Parasnath 1157 Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Gomoh 1187 Dhanbad Junction Railways in Jharia Coalfield 1245 Asansol Junction Bardhaman–Asansol section 1287 Durgapur 1351 Barddhaman Junction Howrah–Bardhaman chord 1446 Howrah Junction Source: Google and 12312 Kalka Mail

The 12311/12 Netaji Express (formerly known as Kalka Mail) is one of the oldest running trains in India. This train connects Howrah in Kolkata, capital of the State of West Bengal to Kalka in Haryana. Kalka is the railhead for the Kalka-Shimla Railway which runs till Shimla, the once summer capital of the British Raj. This train connects with the Shivalik Deluxe Express that runs between Kalka and Shimla.

• 12311 departs Howrah at 21:55 IST and reaches Kalka at 03:00 IST on the third day. ^[1]
• 12312 departs Kalka at 23:55 IST and reaches Howrah at 08:05 IST on the third day. ^[2]

This train has 24 Utkrisht ICF coaches.

Howrah to Kalka ^[3]

Loco	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
	SLR	GEN	GEN	S1	S2	S3	S4	S5	PC	B1	A1	B2	B3	B4	A2	A3	HA1	S6	S7	S8	S9	GEN	GEN	SLR

Kalka to Howrah ^[4]

Loco	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
	SLR	GEN	GEN	S9	S8	S7	S6	HA1	A2	A1	B4	B3	B2	A1	B1	PC	S5	S4	S3	S2	S1	GEN	GEN	SLR

At Chandigarh Junction; coaches S1 to S5 , PC, B1 and A1 are detached from 12311 bound to Kalka. These coaches are re-attached with 12312 bound to Howrah. This is done as the platforms of Kalka are too short to fully fit the 24 coach rake.

This train is hauled end to end by a WAP-7 or a WAP-4 electric locomotive based in Electric Loco Shed, Howrah.

In the late 1850s, the British Government in India decided to relocate their capital from Calcutta to Shimla during the summer months to protect the European population from the intense heat of the Bengal plains. To facilitate the annual migration of British officials, their families, and accompanying staff between the imperial capital at Calcutta and the summer capital in Shimla, the East Indian Railway Company inaugurated a train service on July 1, 1866. Departing from Howrah Railway Station, the service was designated as 1 UP (Up Line) / 2 DN (Down Line), known as the East Indian Railway Mail. Initially, this service operated exclusively between Howrah and Delhi.^[5]

The extension of the Ambala – Kalka railway line in 1891 enabled the East Indian Railway Mail to extend its route to Kalka. The subsequent opening of the Kalka – Shimla route on November 7, 1903, facilitated the further extension of the train service to Shimla, involving a gauge change at Kalka. Passengers traveling to Shimla from Kalka transitioned from a broad gauge train to a narrow gauge East Indian Railway Mail for the final leg of the journey. Notably, both Howrah and Kalka stations featured internal carriageways along the platforms to allow the Viceroy and other dignitaries to access their rail coaches directly. The carriageway at Howrah remains in use between Platforms 8 and 9, while the carriageway at Kalka has been repurposed into a platform.^[6]

The revered freedom fighter Netaji Subash Chandra Bose boarded this train from Gomoh on the night of 17 January, 1941 while escaping the British Raj to Peshawar. With the rationalisation of train numbering system in the 1990s, the iconic designation 01 UP / 02 DN was discontinued. ^[7] On July 10, 2011 this train was involved in a derailment at Malwan station in Fatehpur district that killed 70 and injured 300.^[8] On 2 October, 2018 the train started running with Utkrisht rakes, becoming the first train in Indian Railways to do so.

This train is featured in a short story by Satyajit Ray, the Indian film director and writer. In the story, The Mystery of the Kalka Mail (Baksho Rahasya), the three main characters travel from Calcutta to Delhi and on to Kalka on the train. The plot involves a stolen diamond and an unpublished manuscript.^[9] The story was also made into a radio play and a film.

This train was renamed to Netaji Express in honour of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose to commemorate his 124th Birth Anniversary on 23 January 2021.^[10]

15 coaches of the Kalka Mail derailed on the Kanpur-Fatehpur line near the Fatehpur railway station on the afternoon of 10 July 2011. Causation is unsolved though poor maintenance of the locomotive is suspected because the engine had begun swaying sideways just before the accident. More than 70 persons died and 300 were injured. The injured were taken to hospitals in Kanpur, Lucknow and Allahabad.^[11][12]