Tejas Express: is it still running, and which routes are active in 2026?

Tejas Express launched in 2017 as India's first corporate-operated train, run by IRCTC (a subsidiary of Indian Railways) rather than the Railways directly — same tracks, locomotives and crew, but ticketing, catering and service standards handled separately, with a more airline-style experience: attendants, entertainment screens, and complimentary travel insurance.

What's actually running now

As of 2026, IRCTC's corporate-run Tejas Express operates on two routes: Lucknow–New Delhi and Ahmedabad–Mumbai Central. Several other routes that were announced or trialled over the years — including Mumbai–Surat and a proposed New Delhi–Jalandhar service — were put on hold and haven't resumed. This has shifted over time due to occupancy and pandemic-era disruptions, so it's genuinely worth checking live running status before you plan around it, rather than assuming an older route list is still accurate.

• Lucknow–New Delhi Tejas Express — around 6 hours, AC Executive Chair Car and AC Chair Car, no pantry car but on-board catering included.
• Ahmedabad–Mumbai Central Tejas Express — around 6.5 hours, same class structure and catering setup.
• Both are chair-car (seated) services, not overnight sleeper trains.

What happened to the wider private-train plan

Indian Railways originally floated a much larger plan to have private operators run around 150 modern trains across roughly 100 routes, with Tejas as the proof of concept. That broader bidding round drew limited interest from private players and never really took off — in practice, premium daytime rail travel investment has largely shifted to Indian Railways' own Vande Bharat programme instead, which has scaled far faster than Tejas ever did.