Wednesday, July 01, 2020

Indian Railway & It's History

Indian Railways is operated by the Ministry of Railways. It is the fourth largest railway network in the world by size. Indian Railway (IR) runs more than 20,000 passenger trains daily. From the first railway proposals in Madras in 1832 to till now, Indian railway achieves many milestones. Here is the list of some important historical events that Indian railway passed through.

Indian Railway
IncidentTime/Facts
First proposalMadras 1832
FoundedOn April 16th, 1853, when a train with 14 railway carriages and 400 guests left Bombay's Bori Bunder for Thane.
Track gauge1676 mm; 1000 mm; 762 mm; 610 mm
Electrification26,269 km
Length115,000 km of track length over a route of 67,312 km
HeadquarterNew Delhi, India
Stations8000 to 8500
Nationalization1951
First Railway BridgeDapoorie Viaduct on the Mumbai-Thane route
First Rail TunnelParsik Tunnel
First Underground RailwayCalcutta Metro
Normal length of a passenger train24 coaches
First Computerized ReservationNew Delhi (1986)
Fastest TrainIndia New Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi Express is the fastest train in India (runs at a speed up to 150 Km/ph)
First electric trainRan between Bombay's Victoria Terminus and Kurla along the Harbour Line of CR, on February 3, 1925, a distance of 9.5 miles
Shortest Station NameIb, near Jharsuguda in Odisha and Od, near Anand in Gujarat
Longest Station NameVenkatanarasimharajuvariipeta on the Arakkonam-Renigunta section near Chennai
Oldest StationChhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
Oldest trains still runningBangalore Mail has been running in various guises since 1864
Highest railway stationGhoom
Oldest running dining carThe Bombay-Pune Deccan Queen
Busiest Railway StationChhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
Longest Run (Time)Vivek Express from Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari travels a distance of 4273
Shortest RunRoute between Nagpur and Ajni (3km)
Longest Run for Daily TrainKerala Express (3054 km in 42.5 hrs)
Longest Non-Stop Run (Distance)Trivandrum Rajdhani covering 528 km
Longest Railway PlatformGorakhpur (1.35 km in length)
Longest Railway BridgeRail link between Idapalli railway station and ICTT, 4.62km
Tallest bridgeThe Ghambir Khad bridge between Jammu Tawi and Udhampur is 77m tall.
Longest TunnelKarbude Tunnel of the Konkan Railway (6.5 km)
Oldest Preserved LocomotiveFairy Queen (1855), still in working order
Daily RunsAbout 10,000 trains
Daily CarriesMore than 11 million passengers & 1 million tonnes of freight
Railway Station with all the Three GaugesSiliguri Railway Station
People EmployedAbout 1.6 million people, fourth largest employer in World
Train with Maximum Number of HaltsHowrah-Amritsar Express (115 halts)
Stations across State LinesNavapur (Maharashtra and Gujarat), Bhawani Mandi (Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan)
Northernmost railway stationBaramulla in Jammu and Kashmir
Western most stationNaliya near Bhuj in Gujarat
Southernmost railway stationKanyakumari
East most railway stationLedo on branch line from Tinsukia
Least punctual trainGuwahati-Trivandrum Express is said to be the most unreliable long-distance train in the country. The charted journey time is 65 hours and 5 minutes, but the average delay on a trip is about 10-12 hours.
Longest non-stop travel/ Trains with most stopsTrivandrum - H. Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express travels the 528km stretch between Vadodara and Kota non-stop
First electric locomotive1908
UNESCO World Heritage SitesChatrapati Shivaji Terminus and the Mountain Railways of ( Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, a narrow gauge railway in West Bengal)
First double Decker trainFlying Rani introduced in 2005
Largest railway complex in IndiaHowrah Station
Train crosses the largest number of statesNavyug express between Mangalore and Jammu Tawi
Train crossed maximum number of zonesErnakulam-Barauni
The largest distance entirely in one stateKolhapur-Gondia Maharashtra Exp
Shortest distance between stationsSafilguda and Dayanand Nagar stations on the Secunderabad, 170m apart.