Howrah–Puri Shatabdi Express

Puri-Howrah Shatabdi Express is a Shatabdi Express category type of service belonging to East Coast Railway zone that runs between Puri and Howrah in India. It was introduced as Puri - Howrah - Puri Duronto Express but its service pattern was changed to Shatabdi Express to provide commercial halts on 8th February 2013  because, Duronto Express should have had no commercial halt then but they had operational or technical halt/s if it was required or if they were required.

It operated as train number 12278 from Puri to Howrah and as train number 12277 in the reverse direction serving the states of Odisha and West Bengal. It was pulled by Indian locomotive class WAP-4,but now it is pulled by a WAP P-5 locomotive or Electric Loco Shed, Howrah WAP-7.

Coaches
The 12278 / 77 Puri Howrah Shatabdi Express presently has 1 AC Executive Chair Car, 7-8 AC Chair Car (7 and sometimes 1 extra) and 2 End on Generator coaches. It does not carry a Pantry car coach but being a Shatabdi category train, catering is arranged on board the train.

As is customary with most train services in India, Coach Composition may be amended at the discretion of Indian Railways depending on demand.

Service
The 12278 / 12277 Puri Howrah Shatabdi Express takes 08 hours and 07 hours 30 mins during return. Real distance between Howrah and Puri is 498.891 kms (as per Khurda Road Division map and East Coast Railway map on official website of East Coast Railway. For earlier part of journey: Kharagpur Division map and South Eastern Railway map on official website of South Eastern Railway) to about 502 kms in Howrah Puri direction and about 502 Kms in opposite direction because, according to Kharagpur Division map and South Eastern Railway map on official website of South Eastern Railway, two lines are longer and one is shorter between Kharagpur and Hijli. Chargeable distance may be different.

The average speed of the train is 65 km/h including halts (average of both directions).

Schedule
The schedule of this 12277/12278 Puri - Howrah Shatabdi Express is given below:-

Routeing
The 12278 / 77 Puri Howrah Shatabdi Express runs from Puri via Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Balasore, Kharagpur to Howrah Junction.

Operation
As per information on 4 Aug 2022, wef 2 Oct, 2022,12278 - will leave Puri at 5:45 AM IST and reach Howrah Junction same Day at 13:45 PM 12277 - leave Howrah Junction at 14:15 PM IST and reach Puri on same Day at 21:50 PM IST

Being a Shatabdi class train, it returns to its originating station Puri at the end of the day.