25 interesting facts about the Indian Railways

The lifeline of the nation, the Indian Railways started its service 161 years ago on 16 April 1853. 

The Railways were first introduced in India in 1853 from Bombay to Thane.

After nationalisation in 1951, Indian Railways became one of the largest networks in the world. 

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Today, Indian Railways is one of the world's largest railway networks with 115,000 kms of track over a route of 65,000 kms and 7,500 stations.

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The first passenger train in East India rolled out from Howrah station to Hooghly, a distance of 24 miles on August 15, 1854.

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India’s fastest train has successfully completed a trial run at 160 kms per hour.

From November and you can travel to Agra from Delhi by train in just 90 minutes, cutting the journey time by 30 minutes.

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The current fastest train was New Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi Express with a maximum speed of 150km/hr on the Faridabad-Agra section.

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Metupalayam Ooty Nilgiri Passenger train is India’s slowest train, which runs at a speed of 10 kmph.

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The Indian Railways operates around 11,000 trains everyday, of which 7,000 are passenger trains.

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The Delhi Main station has secured a place in the Guinness Book of Records for having the world’s largest route relay interlocking system.

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Indian Railways is the world's ninth largest commercial employer, with over 1.4 million employees.

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With the platform length of 2,733 feet, the Indian Railways has the longest railway platform at Kharagpur in West Bengal.

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Vembanad Rail Bridge in Kerala is the longest rail bridge in India covering a stretch of 4.62 km. 

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The longest tunnel is Karbude Tunnel in the Konkan Railway route, which covers a distance of 6.5 km.

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Vivek Express, which runs between Dibrugarh and Kanyakumari, has the longest route in India. It covers 4,286 km in about 82 hours and 30 minutes.

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Howrah- Amritsar Express with 115 stops has the record for maximum number of stops by an Express/Mail train.

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The Indian Railway started computerised reservation in New Delhi in 1986.

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The Railway has over 239,281 freight wagons, 59,713 passenger coaches and 9,549 locomotives. 

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India’s first sea bridge, the Pamban Bridge is a cantilever bridge on the Palk Strait connecting Rameswaram on Pamban Island in Tamil Nadu.

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Adding to Railways accolades, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railways attained the World Heritage Status from UNESCO.

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Fairy Queen, the oldest functioning steam engine in the world has been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records. It has also received the Heritage Award from the International Tourist Bureau, Berlin in March 2000.

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The world’s highest rail bridge, Chenab Bridge is being constructed over Chenab river in Jammu & Kashmir. 

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The Indian Railways saw a 15 per cent increase in revenue in 2013-14, rising to Rs 1,40,485 crore, compared to Rs 1,21,831 crore last year.

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The total numbers of passenger bookings during 2013-14 stood at 8,535 million, compared to 8,602 million last year. 

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The Indian Railways (IR) carries over 25 million passengers daily.

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As of 31 March 2013, 23,541 km of the total 65,000 km route length is electrified.

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This year, the Railways introduced a mobile app system to track train schedules.

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