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.