In 1864, station became operational with a
broad-gauge train from Calcutta. In 1873, the
Rajputana State Railway laid a
metre-gauge track connecting Delhi to
Rewari and further to
Ajmer, with metre-gauge train services from the station commencing in 1876. In 1900, the present building of Delhi Junction railway station was constructed in and opened to the public in 1903 with just two platforms and serving around 1,000 passengers. Old Delhi railway station was constructed using red stone to harmonise with the historic Mughal-era
Red Fort located nearby. The original station building featured six clock towers, of which Tower 4 remains in use today as a water tank. In 1904, the Agra–Delhi railway line was inaugurated, establishing Delhi as a critical railway hub connected by six railway systems. The
East Indian Railway,
North-Western State Railway, and
Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway made headways into Delhi from Ghaziabad, crossing the
Yamuna River. The Delhi–Panipat–Ambala Cantonment–Kalka Railway extended northwards from Delhi, while the
Rajputana–Malwa Railway passed through the Delhi district briefly on its way toward Gurgaon and Rewari Junction. Until 1926, when
New Delhi railway station was built from 1926-1931, the Old Delhi railway station served as the primary railway station of Delhi. The original Agra–Delhi railway line passed through the area later designated for the hexagonal War Memorial (now
India Gate) and Kingsway (now
Rajpath) as part of New Delhi's city planning. To accommodate this, the
East Indian Railway Company realigned the tracks to run along the Yamuna River, completing the new route in 1924. In 1934–35, the station was remodelled, platforms extended, and power signals were introduced. In the 1990s, a new entrance was added on the
Kashmere Gate side, and additional platforms were constructed. The platforms were renumbered in September 2011, with the sequence starting from the main entrance as Platform 1 and ending at Platform 16 near the Kashmere Gate entrance. Some platforms were merged to form longer platforms capable of accommodating 24-coach trains. In 1994, it has been exclusively a broad-gauge station, with metre-gauge traffic shifted to
Delhi Sarai Rohilla station. In 2012-13, the station building underwent another renovation. In 2016, 2.2 MW
rooftop solar panels were installed at the station. == Major trains ==