MUMBAI (MAHARASHTRA) TO AMRITSAR (PUNJAB) : FULL TRAIN JOURNEY : 12903 MUMBAI CENTRAL - AMRITSAR GOLDEN TEMPLE MAIL : VADODARA WAP7 LOCOMOTIVE : 3AC / 3 TIER AC COACH INTERIORS : INDIAN RAILWAYS.
12903/Golden Temple Mail (PT)
Other Names: Frontier Mail
सुवर्ण मंदिर मेल स्वर्ण मंदिर मेल
MMCT/Mumbai Central -- ASR/Amritsar Junction
The 12903 / 12904 Golden Temple Mail is a Mail train belonging to Indian Railways that runs daily between Mumbai Central (MMCT) in Maharashtra and Amritsar Junction (ASR) in Punjab. It is named after the famous Golden Temple at Amritsar. The train will run with modern LHB coaches from 29 September 2020. The train ran as the Frontier Mail between 1928 and 1996, ferrying passengers arriving by Steamer from Europe directly from Ballard Pier in Bombay to the city of Peshawar on India's North-West Frontier before the Partition of India.
It operates as train number 12903 from Mumbai Central to Amritsar Junction and as train number 12904 in the reverse direction.
The Golden Temple Mail was until September 1996 known as Frontier Mail. Prior the Partition of India, it would run up to Peshawar on India's frontier with Afghanistan from which it derived its name. During the autumn months between September and December, the train used to depart from the Ballard Pier Mole station. This was for the convenience of the British who arrived in India by steamer. The Frontier Mail also finds a place in romanticised biographies of film actor Prithviraj Kapoor who is believed to have travelled to Bombay from his hometown of Peshawar by the Frontier Mail in 1928 to act in films. Hunterwali, probably India's first action heroine, has acted in the film Miss Frontier Mail. The Frontier Mail was the first air conditioned train in the Indian Peninsula, when it got an air-conditioned compartment in 1934. The radio facility was provided for the first time in the Golden Temple Mail.
The 12903/04 Golden Temple Mail has 1 AC First cum AC 2 Tier, 2 AC 2 tier, 5 AC 3 tier, 1 Sleeper class, 2 General unreserved coaches, 2 General cum baggage coaches. It also has 1 Railway Mail service coach, 1 Pantry car & 1 High Capacity Parcel Van.
The Golden Temple Mail runs between Mumbai Central and Amritsar Junction. It is a daily service covering the distance of 1891 km in 32 hours 15 mins as 12903 Golden Temple Mail averaging 58.64 km/hr & 31 hours 55 mins as 12904 Golden Temple Mail averaging 59.25 km/hr.
It is now regularly hauled by a Vadodara Loco Shed based WAP-7 locomotive from end to end.
The train runs from Mumbai Central via Borivali, Surat, Vadodara Junction, Ratlam Junction, Nagda Junction, Kota Junction, Sawai Madhopur Junction, Gangapur City, Bharatpur Junction, Mathura Junction, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Ghaziabad Junction, Meerut City, Saharanpur Junction, Ambala Cantonment Junction, Ludhiana Junction, Phagwara, Jalandhar City Junction, Beas Junction to Amritsar Junction.
Amritsar Junction railway station (station code: ASR) is a railway junction located in Amritsar district in the Indian state of Punjab and serves Amritsar. It is the largest and busiest railway station of Punjab. The Amritsar railway station is located at an elevation of 233 metres (764 ft) and was assigned the code "ASR." With this, it has become the busiest railway station of the state in terms of passenger movement and train traffic. In the 2016 railway budget, the government has aimed to beautify the railway station as it is the main station of the holy city. The railway station is the first and only with WiFi in the division and CCTV has recently been enabled. In the recent railway budget, it has been mentioned that Amritsar Junction will be improved due to its importance in various fields. The Movement Control Office (MCO) for Armed Forces is also available at PF no 1. There are ten platforms under use, 1(A), 1(B), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Platform no. 8 is used for freight trains. Platform no. 1(B) is reserved exclusively for freight and passenger trains of Indian Army. Amritsar became the first railway station in the state to be WiFi-enabled.
Mumbai Central (formerly Bombay Central, station code: MMCT) is a major railway station on the Western line, situated in Mumbai, Maharashtra in an area known by the same name. It serves as a major stop for both Local and Inter-City/Express trains with separate platforms for them. It is also a terminal for several long-distance trains including the Mumbai Rajdhani Express. It is one of the five major Terminal stations in Mumbai while others being Mumbai CST, Mumbai LTT, Mumbai BDTS and Mumbai Dadar. Trains depart from the station connecting various destinations mostly across states in the northern, western and north-western parts of India. The station was renamed from Bombay Central to Mumbai Central in 1997, following the change of Bombay to Mumbai. In 2018, a resolution was passed to change the station code to MMCT, with implementation ongoing.
