Kalka Mail at present is the one of the oldest train running in the country, it has a total of 24 coaches and has total 4 Rakes. This train is categorized as super-fast and runs at a maximum speed of 115 km/hrs. The engine attached to this train is the modern 6350 HP, WAP-7 based in Howrah. In between Howrah and Kalka, the train stops at 37 stations. Passengers boarding the train have to abide by distance restriction: the minimum travel distance is 160 km in all AC classes and 480 km in Sleeper and 2S. However, it carries all passengers on the. Delhi-Kalka route.
History
Run by the East Indian Railway Company, the train began operation between Calcutta and Delhi in 1866 as the "East Indian Railway Mail". Its run was extended from Delhi to Kalka in 1891. The train was the principal mechanism by which British civil servants moved to their summer capital in Simla from Calcutta with the entire government machinery traveling on the train at the start of the summer months and returning by it at the end of summer. Both stations, Howrah as well as Kalka, had internal carriageways running along the platform so that the Viceroy and other high-ranking officers could drive right up to their rail coaches. The carriageway at Howrah is still used and runs between Platforms 8 and 9 but the carriageway at Kalka has been converted into platform. With the rationalization of train numbering in the 1990s, the Kalka Mail lost its 1 Up /2 Dn numbering and is now the 12311 from Howrah and the 12312 from Kalka.
Timings
The train leaves Howrah at 19:40 hrs and arrives at Kalka after two nights at 04:30 hrs. It leaves Kalka at 23:55 hrs and arrives at Howrah after two nights at 08:05 hrs. The journey takes 31 hrs 10 mins for the Howrah-Kalka journey but takes 32 hrs for the Kalka-Howrah journey.
In popular culture
Kalka Mail is featured in a short story by Satyajit Ray, the Indian film director and writer. In the story, The Mystery of the Kalka Mail , 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 The plot involves a stolen diamond and an unpublished manuscript. The story was also made into a radio play.
13 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 69 persons died and 200 were injured. The injured were taken to hospitals in Kanpur, Lucknow and Allahabad.
