Indian Railways

Indian Railways

Indian Railways, a historical legacy, are a vital force in our economy. The first railway on Indian sub-continent ran from Bombay to Thane on 16th April 1853. Fourteen railway carriages carried about 400 guests from Bombay to Thane covering a distance of 21 miles. Since then there has been no looking back. It is interesting to note that though the railways were introduced to facilitate the commercial interest of the British it played an important role in unifying the country.

Railways are ideally suited for long distance travel and movement of bulk commodities. Regarded better than road transport in terms of energy efficiency, land use, environment impact and safety it is always in forefront during national emergency.

Indian railways, the largest rail network in Asia and the world's second largest under one management are also credited with having a multi gauge and multi traction system.

The track kilometers in Broad Gauge (1676 mm) are 86, 526 kms, Meter Gauge (1000 mm) are 18, 529 kms and Narrow Gauge (762/610 mm) are 3,651 kms. Of the total route of 63,028 kms, 16,001 kms are electrified.

The railways have 7566 Locomotives, 37, 840 Coaching Vehicles, 222, 147 Freight Wagons, 6853 Stations, 300 Yards, 2300 Good sheds, 700 Repair Shops, and 1.54 million Work Force. Indian Railways runs around 11,000 Trains everyday, of which 7,000 are Passenger Trains.

For administrative convenience Indian Railways is primarily divided into 16 zones:

Interesting Facts about Indian Railways

Shortest Station Name: Ib near Jharsuguda on the Howrah-Nagpur main line (South Eastern Railway).

Longest Station Name: Venkatanarasimharajuvariapeta often prefixed with Sri. on the Arakkonam-Renigunta section of the Southern Railway.

Longest run (time): The Himsagar Express running between Jammu Tawi and Kanyakumari, It covers its route of 3751km in 74 hours and 55 minutes.

Longest run for daily train: The Kerala Express has daily service and covers 3054 km in its run (in 42.5 hours).

Longest non-stop run (distance): The Trivandrum Rajdhani does not have a technical halt at Ratlam and, therefore, travels non-stop between Vadodara and Kota (528km), covering the stretch in about 6.5 hours.

Trains with no commercial halts en route: Sampoorna Kranti Exp, Howrah Rajdhani, Bombay Rajdhani, Pragati Exp and Pune Shatabdi

Shortest runs: Nagpur - Ajni has scheduled services that are just 3km in distance. This is mainly a service for crew to travel from Nagpur station to the workshop at Ajni.

Highest number of halts: Mail and Express trains [3/99] The Howrah-Amritsar Exp. leads in this category with 115 halts.

Busiest Station: Lucknow which caters to as many as 64 trains per day.

Stations straddling state lines: Navapur is a station that is half in Maharashtra and half in Gujarat. Bhawani Mandi station, on the Shamgarh-Kota section of the Bombay-Delhi line is half in Madhya Pradesh and half in Rajasthan.

Station with all the three gauges: Siliguri station.