The first railway on the Indian sub-continent ran over a stretch of 21 miles from Bombay to Thane. The first passenger train steamed out of Howrah station destined for Hooghly, a distance of 24 miles, on 15th August 1854. Thus the first section of the East Indian Railway was opened to public traffic, inaugurating the beginning of railway transport on the Eastern side of the subcontinent.
In the south, the first line was opened on Ist July 1856 by the Madras Railway Company. It ran between Vyasarpadi Jeeva Nilayam (Veyasarpandy) and Walajah Road (Arcot), a distance of 63 miles. In the North, a length of 119 miles of line was laid from Allahabad to Kanpur on 3rd March 1859. The first section from Hathras Road to Mathura Cantonment was opened to traffic on 19th October 1875.
Indian Railways Length
Track Kilometers | Broad Gauge
(1676 mm) |
Meter Gauge
(1000 mm) |
Narrow Gauge (762/610 mm) | Total |
86,526 | 18,529 | 3,651 | 108,706 | |
Route Kilometers | Electrified | Total | ||
16,001 | 63,028 |
Other Interesting Facts of Indian Railways
Indian Railways runs around 11,000 trains every day, of which 7,000 are passenger trains
7566 – locomotives | 37,840 – Coaching vehicles | 222,147 – Freight wagons | 6853 – Stations | |
300 – Yards | 2300 – Good sheds | 700 – Repair shops | 1.54 million – Workforce |
Indian Railways Map showing the network across the country with different zones:
- Northern Railway (NR)
- North Eastern Railway (NER)
- Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR)
- Western Railway (WR)
- Southern Railway (SR)
- South Central Railway (SCR)
- South Eastern Railway (SER)
- Eastern Railway (ER)
- Central Railway (CR)
- South Western Railway (SWR)
- North Western Railway (NWR)
- West Central Railway (WCR)
- North Central Railway (NCR)
- South East Central Railway (SECR)
- East Coast Railway (ECoR)
- East Central Railway (ECR)
- Metro Railway Kolkata
- South Coast Railway