Railway Station Codes List

Indian Railways Station Codes

Indian Railways boasts an impressive network of railway lines connecting every nook and corner of the country. The department of Railways has built the railway stations at regular intervals for the convenience of the passengers. The stations are present in small towns, villages, cities, and even in remote locations. There are a total of around 9500 railway stations in the country that are distributed in various railway stations. Out of such a humongous number, it isn't very easy to analyse a whole list of stations for travel plans. Also, it is difficult to identify a station solely by its name as a city or village houses multiple stations. For this purpose, railways have unique station codes for easy reference and identification.

The codes are represented in acronyms and consist of only three to four letters. The station codes come in handy when a passenger makes a ticket reservation. Rather than typing the entire name of the corresponding station, he only needs to enter the acronym. It saves a great deal of time and minimises the time it takes to load the list. At eTrainStatus, you can find out a list of station names that are operational in the country along with their station codes. Leverage our list to get to know the station code of a station, check for the trains that are running from the station. You can then check for the availability of the seats of a particular class, fare details and proceed with ticket booking.

How do the railways assign station codes?

The Indian Railways do not follow any particular procedure while assigning station codes. While many station codes fit into their station names, others bear no relation to the station name. For instance, Kapurthala (KSH), Bengaluru city (SBC), Cuddapah (HX) are in no way related to the station names. On the other hand, the codes of stations like Visakhapatnam (VSKP), Howrah (HWH), Agartala (AGTL), Aligarh Junction (ALJN) very well are in line with the names of the corresponding railway stations.

A "C" in station code sometimes corresponds to cantonment, "J" for junction, "S" and "N" for South and North, respectively. You can find the miscellaneous letters X Z Q that are incorporated in between various station codes. It usually happens when there are stations with similar names. Sometimes B and M are used to differentiate between Broad and Meter Gauge stations that are located near to each other but operate differently.

Railway Zones Present in the Country

As of now, the Indian Railways has 17 zones for ease of administrative purposes. They include the North Eastern, North Eastern, Northern, North Frontier, Eastern, South Eastern, South, South Central, South-Western, North Western, Western, North Central, West Central, South East Central, East Central, and East Coast.

By knowing the source and the destination codes, one can know the number of trains passing through a particular train route, trains between stations, and many other details. When making a ticket booking on the IRCTC website or NTES website, you only need to enter the station codes in the space provided and get the list of trains that are running between the source station and the destination station.

Railway Platforms and Types

All railway stations present in the country have some platform that is located alongside railway tracks. The platforms are meant to offer convenient access to the passengers for boarding the train. There are different types of platforms, such as bay platform, split platform, side platform, island platform, and flow-through platforms.

Bay platform: It is the platform where the track terminates. The train has to move either reverse in or out.

Island platform: Here, a single platform is laid out between twin railway tracks. The passengers of both platforms can make use of the amenities/supporting services such as toilets, ticket offices, and Kiosks, escalators, elevators, shops, toilets. It eliminates the need to duplicate the same on either track.

Side platform: A side platform is a type of platform that is positioned to the side of a pair of tracks at the railway station. The side platforms lead to a wider overall footprint to the stations as compared to the island platforms.

Split platform: As the name indicates, a split-platform features a platform for each track that is split into two or more levels. As the platforms lie stacked, one above the other, elevators or stairs are located in the close vicinity.

Flow-through platforms: Flow-through platforms come in handy in instances of high passenger volumes. They allow the passengers to board and alight the train from dedicated platforms.