Indian Railways: Key Facts

• The first train on Indian soil ran in Bombay between Bori Bunder to Thane on 16th of April, 1853.

• Indian Railways has over 62,000 route kms of track. 

• Indian Railways employs about 1.6 million people. 

• Indian Railways carries over 11 million passengers & one million tonnes of freight everyday.

• It runs about 13,000 trains daily and has 6,984 railway stations.

• The longest journey on Indian Railways is from Jammu Tawi to Kanyakumari, a distance of about 3,751 kms covered by Himsagar Express in about 66 hours. 

• The longest railway platform in the world is at Kharagpur measuring 2,733 ft in length.

• Nehru Setu on river Sone is the longest Railway Bridge. 

• The longest tunnel is on Konkan Railway, which is 6.5 km in length. 

• Calcutta METRO is the first and only underground Railway in India.

• Computerised reservation system first started in New Delhi in 1986. 

• First electric train ran on 3rd Feb, 1925 between Bombay VT and Kurla.

• Toilets on Trains were introduced in 1891 in 1st Class & in 1907 in lower classes.

• 42 Railway companies operated in the country before Independence. 

• Indian Railways is presently divided into 17 Zonal Railways.

• Fairy Queen (1855) is the oldest preserved locomotive in the working order. 

• The Manufacture of steam locomotives in the country stopped in 1972.

• Diesel Locomotives are manufactured at DLW, Varanasi. Electric locomotives are manufactured at CLW, Chittaranjan. Coaches are manufactured at ICF/Madras, RCF/Kapurthala & BEML/Bangalore. 

• Indian Railways' fastest train is the Bhopal-Shatabdi, which runs at a speed up to 140 Kmph. 

• 1st A.C. , 2nd A.C. , 3rd A.C. , A.C. Exec. Chair Car, A.C. Chair car, 1st Class, IInd Sleeper & IInd Ordinary are the various classes of travel on the IR. 

• IR's only Rack & Pinion system type of line is from Kallar to Coonoor. 

• The National Rail Museum at New Delhi was set up in 1977.