It covers a distance of 1,452 kilometres (902 mi) across, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

[2] The Sitarampur–Gaya–Mughalsarai Grand Chord, which shortened the Howrah–Delhi distance even further, was completed in 1901 but was formally inaugurated by Lord Minto, then Viceroy and Governor General of India with a function on 6 December 1906.

The Howrah Rajdhani (between Howrah and New Delhi) travels at an average speed of 85.8 km per hour and the Sealdah Rajdhani (between Sealdah and New Delhi) travels at an average speed of 82.70 km per hour.

[10] New Delhi, Kanpur Central, Allahabad, Mughalsarai, Gaya, Dhanbad, Asansol and Howrah, on this line, are amongst the top hundred booking stations of Indian Railway.

The routes connecting the four major metropolises (New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata), along with their diagonals, known as the golden quadrilateral, carry about half the freight and nearly half the passenger traffic, although they form only 16 per cent of the length.