North East Express

The North East Express is a daily Superfast train of Indian Railways that runs between Kamakhya Junction in Guwahati, Assam and Anand Vihar near New Delhi, connecting northeastern India to New Delhi. The train belongs to the Northeast Frontier Railway zone of Indian Railways, while the coaches belong to the Kamakhya coaching depot of the Lumding railway division.

The North East Express succeeded the Assam Mail in 1986. The train runs along the Barauni–Guwahati line, Mokama–Barauni section, and the Howrah–Delhi main line.

Service
The train is numbered as 12505/12506. Originally, the North East Express was not a Superfast Express (broad gauge trains with an average speed of at least 55 km/h) and used service numbers 921 and 922 when introduced in 1986. In 1988, the train was reassigned with 2521 and 2522, later replaced with 5621 and 5622. It used to run between Guwahati and New Delhi. In the railway budget of 2005–2006, it was sped up to the broad gauge Superfast category without the removal of any stops. The new numbers assigned in the Superfast category were 2505 from Guwahati and 2506 from New Delhi. With the new five-digit numbering scheme introduced during the tenure of Mamata Banerjee as railway minister, the service numbers were changed to 12505 and 12506. The train now starts from Kamakhya Junction railway station at Maligaon and runs up to Anand Vihar Terminal instead of Guwahati and New Delhi.

Coaches
The train has air-conditioned as well as non-air-conditioned coaches. The composition of the train is 2A – 1 (A-1), 3A – 3 (B-1, B-2, B-3), SL – 14 (S-1 to S-14), PC – 1, GENL – 3 & SLR – 2. The total rake length is 24 coaches. New LHB rakes were introduced on 3 October 2019.

Delhi to Guwahati
==== List of stops on the North East Express from Delhi to Guwahati ====

Traction
Previously it was hauled by a Siliguri-based WDP-4 / WDP-4B / WDP-4D locomotive between Kamakhya Junction and New Jalpaiguri Junction. Between New Jalpaiguri Junction and Anand Vihar Terminal a Ghaziabad-based WAP-7 (HOG)-equipped locomotive was used. Since 22 October 2021, an Electric Loco Shed, Ghaziabad based WAP 7 electric locomotive is used end-to-end.

Accidents and incidents
On 11 October 2023 at 21:35 IST, 23 coaches of the eastbound 12506 train derailed near Raghunathpur Railway Station in the Buxar district of Bihar. Five people were killed in the crash and more than 70 others were injured. The East Central Railway zone facilitated relief trains to ferry the remaining passengers to their destination. A preliminary investigation report cited an issue with the track.