Indian Railways

East India Company can be considered as the pioneer of the Indian Railways and Lord Dalhousie for laying the foundation of rail transport in India. In 1853 the Great India Peninsular Co. built the first line of 33.6 km from Mumbai to Thane.

Currently the Indian railway is the second largest railway system in the world and also the biggest employer. India has 543,760 km of railway line with 6985 stations and over 11,275 locomotives (trains per day). 29% of the total track length is electrified and is second biggest electrified railway system in the world after Russia.

The three type of lines are Broad Gauge (1676 mm) 41,791 km, Meter Gauge (1000 mm) 17,044 km, Narrow Gauge (762 mm and 610 mm) 3,710 km.

First train in India (also in Asia) : 16 April, 1853 between Mumbai and Thane (32 km). Steam engine use coal and is running only few heritage routes. Diesel locomotives run on Diesel and was introduced in 1957. Electric locomotives were introduced in 1929. First electric train in India was Deccan Queen, introduced in 1929 between Kalyan and Thane.

Indian Railway has nine administrative zones - Central Railway (CST, Mumbai), Eastern Railway (Kolkata), Northern Railway (New Delhi), North Eastern Railway (Gorakhpur), North East Frontier (Maligaon in Guwahati), Southern Railway (Chennai), South central Railway (Secunderabad), South Eastern Railway (Kolkata) and Western Railway (Churchgate, Mumbai).

Indrail pass : It allows foreign visitors to travel anywhere in India by train within the period of validity (1 to 90 day). For train timings and reservation of tickets Indian Railways