Have you ever looked at a train number printed on your railway ticket carefully?

If  your answer is -Yes! Then next question is what you know about it, apart from the fact that it consist of 5 digits? and that you can use it for doing railway enquiry, like to check PNR status or seat availability.

Train Number Secrets Revealed

The 5 digits are not there just to make a number. Each digit in a train number has a special meaning knowing the secret of which you can get complete information about the train.

Train no. 12851 Shatabdi Express
Train no. 12851 Shatabdi Express


First Digit in Train Number


First digit could be anything between (0-9).

'0' - means it is a special train (summer special, holiday special or other special train like festival special train which railway runs from time to time to clear the extra rush of passengers).

'1' and '2' - If first digit is any one of 1 or 2, it represents that train is a long distance train. It could be of type Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Jan Sadharan,Sampark Kranti, Garib Rath, or Duronto Express train.

'3' - it is a kolkata suburban train.

'4' - it shows that a train is a suburban train of New Delhi, Chennai, Secunderabad, or other metro city  train.

'5' - shows it is a passenger train.

'6' - means it is a MEMU train.

'7' - means it is a DEMU train.

'8' - means it is a reserved train.

'9' - means it is a Mumbai Suburban train.


Second Digit and digit after that in Train Number

Second digit and digit after it is related to first digit.

When the first digit of train number is anyone among 0, 1, or 2,  the the remaining four digits shows the railway zone and division to which train belongs.

'0' - means train belongs to Konkan Railway zone.

'1' - means train is from central railway, west central railway, north central railway.

'2' - here it actually shows Superfast, Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi trains. In this case, the remaining digits shows train zone code.

'3' - shows that train Zone is eastern railway or east central railway.

'4' - is used to show Northern railway, north central railway, north western railway zones.

'5' - means north east railway, north east frontier railway.

'6' - means Southern railway and south western railway.

'7' - means south central and south western railway,

'8' - means south eastern, east coastal railway.

'9' - means western railway, north western railway, and  west central railway,


Note: In trains whose train number has first digit among any of 5, 6, 7 then there second digit shows railway zone and remaining 3 digits shows the division of railway.

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