New Delhi: Indian Railways are considered the lifeline of Indians. In recent years, there has been significant growth in the Indian Railways. A journey by train not only gives you a comfortable ride but also many lifetime memorable moments.
Indian Railways began its journey on this day in 1853, with its first passenger train running between Bori Bunder (Mumbai) and Thane. Today, Indian Railways is the fourth-largest railway network in the world, operating a vast network of tracks and stations. With Indian Railways completing 172 years, let us look at its throwback journey—from steam engines to Vande Bharat trains.
A 2-8-2 WG class locomotive made by the North British Locomotive Co Ltd of Glasgow is unloaded (Photo credit: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
About Indian Railways
Before we look into the journey of Indian Railways, let us look at some facts about Indian Railways.
Indian Railways is a government-run company that operates India’s national railway system. As of 2024, it has the fourth largest railway network in the world, with a total track length of 135,207 km.
The running track is 109,748 km, and the route is 69,181 km. By August 2024, 96.59 per cent of the broad-gauge network will be electrified. With over 1.2 million employees, it is the ninth-largest employer in the world and the second-largest in India.
In 2023–24, it ran an average of 13,198 trains daily, covering 7,325 stations and transporting 6.905 billion passengers. It also manages different types of freight trains. In the same period, it operated an average of 11,724 freight trains daily, moving 1,588.06 million tonnes of goods. Indian Railways has multiple classes of rolling stock made in its own manufacturing facilities. As of March 31, 2024, it had 327,991 freight wagons, 91,948 passenger coaches, 10,675 electric, 4,397 diesel, and 38 steam locomotives.
1832–1852
In 1832, the idea of building the first railway line in Madras, India, was presented. By 1835, a railway track was constructed between Red Hills and Chintadripet in Madras, and it began running in 1837. It used a rotary steam engine brought from England to transport granite.
The Madras Railway was founded in 1845. Temporary railway lines, such as the Godavari Dam Construction Railway in Dowleswaram by Arthur Cotton in 1845, supplied stone for a dam on the Godavari River. Another example is the Solani aqueduct railway built by Proby Cautley in Roorkee in 1851 to carry materials for an aqueduct over the Solani River. On August 1, 1849, the Great Indian Peninsular Railway was established with a system that provided free land and guaranteed a five-percent return to private British companies building railways. In 1852, a steam locomotive from England was tested in Byculla.
1853–1924
In 1853, the first passenger train using a 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) broad gauge operated 34 kilometres between Bombay and Thane. It had 14 carriages carrying 400 passengers, pulled by three steam locomotives: the Sahib, Sindh, and Sultan. The Great Southern of India Railway Company was established in 1853 and headquartered in England.
In May 1854, the Thane viaducts, the first railway bridges, were built over Thane creek when the Mumbai-Thane line was extended to Kalyan. Eastern India’s first passenger train ran 39 kilometres (24 miles) from Howrah, near Kolkata, to Hoogly on August 15, 1854. Construction began in 1853 on a 97-kilometre line in the South from Royapuram in Madras to Arcot, which started operations on July 1, 1856.
The first workshops were set up by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR) in Byculla in 1854 and Madras Railway in Perambur in 1856. The Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway (BB&CI) was founded in 1855, and the Eastern Bengal Railway began in 1858. The Carnatic Railway was established in 1869.
On February 24, 1873, a 3.8-kilometre horse-drawn tram opened in Calcutta between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat Street. On May 9, 1874, a horse-drawn tram began in Bombay between Colaba and Parel. The Great Southern of India Railway and the Carnatic Railway merged in 1874 to form the South Indian Railway.
In 1879, the Nizam’s Guaranteed State Railway was formed, and railway lines were built across Hyderabad. In 1877, an Ajmer-made F-1/734 Steam Locomotive became India’s first indigenously made locomotive. The East Coast State Railway was established in 1890.
In 1897, Jodhpur Railway introduced electric lighting in passenger coaches, the first time electric lights became standard in trains. In 1908, Madras Railway merged with Southern Mahratta Railway to become the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway. The Pamban Bridge, the first sea bridge, opened on February 24, 1914. In 1920, electric signal lighting was introduced between Dadar and Currey Road in Bombay.
1925–1949
The first railway budget was presented in 1924. In that year, the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway joined the East Indian Railway Company. On February 3, 1925, the first electric train ran between Victoria Terminus and Kurla, pulled by an SLM electric locomotive using 1500 V DC power. Later, the Victoria Terminus to Bandra section was electrified, and the first Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) were introduced, using 1.5 KV DC units imported from Cammell Laird and Uerdingenwagonfabrik.
On April 1, 1929, the Grand Trunk Express started running between Peshawar in the North Western Railway and Mangalore, with two coaches that could be connected to Madras. The Frontier Mail made its first trip between Bombay and Peshawar in 1928. New technology allowed for automatic colour light signals to be used between Bombay and Byculla in 1928.
In the following years, the route from Bombay to Poona was electrified. In June 1930, the first deluxe train, the Deccan Queen, began service, pulled by a WCP-1 locomotive with seven coaches. The Grand Trunk Express began operating daily between Madras and Delhi starting September 1, 1930. The Chennai suburban railway started in 1931 with a single metre-gauge line from Chennai Beach to Tambaram. In 1944, the government took over all railway companies.
1950–1983
The first locomotive manufacturing unit in Chittaranjan started operations in 1950. In December 1950, a Central Advisory Committee approved a plan to reorganise Indian Railways into six regional zones.
The Southern Railway was created on April 14, 1951, followed by the Central and Western Railways on November 5, 1951. On April 14, 1952, the Northern Railway, Eastern Railway, and North Eastern Railway were established. In 1952, all passenger train compartments had to include fans and lights, and sleeping accommodations were added to coaches.
In 1953, Indian Railways celebrated its 100th anniversary of operation with events and a special postage stamp. The North British Locomotive Company made the first diesel locomotive in India in 1954.
On August 1, 1955, the South-Eastern Railway separated from the Eastern Railway. The next year, a divisional system for administration was set up across different regional zones. The Integral Coach Factory began manufacturing rail coaches in 1956, and the first air-conditioned train ran between Howrah and New Delhi that same year.
In 1958, the North-Eastern Railway became the Northeast Frontier Railway.
Indian Railways started using 25 kV AC traction in 1957. The first trial runs with WAM-1 locomotives occurred in 1959, and commercial services began in August 1960.
In 1960, the Railway Board commissioned a study to increase passenger train speeds to 160 km/h (99 mph), with an intermediate speed of 120 km/h (75 mph). Research and Design Standards Organisation (RDSO) began work on this in 1962, and field trials began in 1967 with coaches made by the Integral Coach Factory and pulled by diesel locomotives.
The first containerised freight rail transport started between Bombay and Ahmedabad in 1966. That year, the 25 kv AC system electrified several suburban tracks around Delhi, Madras, and Calcutta.
In 1969, the Indian Government announced a new express train in the railway budget, capable of reaching 120 km/h (75 mph) speeds. The first Rajdhani Express ran from New Delhi to Howrah in March 1969. In 1974, Indian Railways faced a 20-day strike.
In 1979, the Main Line Electrification Project became the Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE). In 1980, WAP-1 electric locomotives achieved a speed of 130 km/h (81 mph).
As of 2024, Indian Railways’ total track length is 135,207 km (Photo credit: Rajdeep Ghosh/Moment/Getty Images)
1984–present
The first metro rail in India started in Calcutta on October 24, 1984, between Esplanade and Bhowanipore. In 1986, Indian Railways introduced computerised ticketing and reservations. Two years later, in 1988, the first Shatabdi Express train began operating between New Delhi and Jhansi.
In 1990, Delhi launched its first self-printing ticket machine (SPTM). By 1993, air-conditioned three-tier and sleeper coaches were introduced. In 1995, Chennai’s MRTS became India’s first elevated railway line, and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was established as a partnership between the Government of India and the Government of Delhi. That same year, a centralised computer reservation system was launched in Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai. In 1998, coupon validating machines (CVMs) appeared at Mumbai CSMT, and on April 18, 1999, a nationwide concierge system began operating. In 1999, the South East Central Railway zone was created, followed by establishing five more zones on July 6, 2002.
The Indian Railways website went live in February 2000. The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) was formed in 1999, and online ticketing started on August 3, 2002.
The first line of the Delhi Metro opened on December 24, 2002. In 2012, Western Railway switched entirely to AC traction, followed by Central Railway in 2016.
On February 1, 2014, Mumbai Monorail became India’s first operational monorail system. In 2015, the first Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered trains were introduced. Then, on April 5, 2016, the Gatimaan Express, India’s fastest train, made its first trip from New Delhi to Agra Cantonment.
In 2017, the central government approved merging the Rail and General budgets. On March 31, 2017, Indian Railways announced a goal to electrify its entire network by 2023.
In March 2020, Indian Railways stopped passenger services to help control the COVID-19 pandemic, while freight trains continued to operate. Passenger services resumed gradually starting in May 2020.
Throughout the 2010s, Indian Railways undertook many modernisation projects. These included high-speed rail, redevelopment of 400 stations, track doubling to ease congestion, refurbishing coaches, GPS-enabled train tracking, and modernising locomotives.
In 2018, a semi-high-speed, self-propelled train set that could go over 160 km/h was launched, and the Vande Bharat Express came out in 2019.
Indian Railways plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 and has begun rainwater harvesting at stations, reforestation along tracks, solar-powered trains, solar and wind power facilities, and sustainable LED lighting at all stations.
By 2019, Indian Railways eliminated all unstaffed level crossings and replaced staffed crossings with bridges. Other safety initiatives include extending an automated fire alarm system to air-conditioned coaches and introducing GPS-enabled Fog Pilot Assistance System devices for railway signalling.
Indian Railways first allowed private passenger trains in 2020, with the first train starting from Coimbatore in June 2022.
With the passing of years, Indian Railways has seen much growth and is also nearing 100 per cent electrification across India. Indian Railways not only connects states but also connects with the people of India, who enjoy being a part of its journey.
Indian Railways, the fourth-largest railway network in the world, marks 172 years since its first passenger train ran in 1853. From steam engines to Vande Bharat Express, explore the historical journey of this lifeline of India. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
