1832–1852: Industrial railways In 1832, the proposal to construct the first railway line in India at
Madras was made. In 1835, a
railway track was constructed between
Red Hills and
Chintadripet in
Madras and became operational in 1837. It was hauled by a
rotary steam engine imported from
England and was used for ferrying
granite. The
Madras Railway was established in 1845.
1853–1924: Passenger railways and expansion In 1853, the first passenger train on broad gauge ran for between
Bombay and
Thane which had 14-carriages carrying 400 people, hauled by three steam locomotives: the Sahib, Sindh and Sultan. The Great Southern of India Railway Company was established with its headquarters in England in 1853. The Thane viaducts, the first
railway bridges, were built over the
Thane Creek when the Mumbai-Thane line was extended to
Kalyan in May 1854. Eastern India's first passenger train ran from
Howrah, near
Kolkata, to
Hoogly on 15 August 1854. The first workshops were established by GIPR at Byculla in 1854 and Madras Railway at
Perambur in 1856. The
Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway (BB&CI) was incorporated in 1855 and the
Eastern Bengal Railway in 1858. The Carnatic Railway was founded in 1869. On 9 May 1874, a horse-drawn tramway began operation in Bombay between
Colaba and
Parel. The Great Southern of India Railway and the Carnatic Railway merged in 1874 to form the
South Indian Railway. In 1879, the
Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway was established which built railway lines across the then
Hyderabad State. In 1877, an
Ajmer built
F-1/734 Steam Locomotive became the first indigenously built locomotive in India.
East Coast State Railway was established in 1890. In 1897, lighting in passenger coaches was introduced with the Jodhpur Railway, the first to introduce electric lighting as standard fixtures.
Pamban bridge, the first sea bridge was opened on 24 February 1914. In 1920,
electric lighting of signals was introduced between
Dadar and
Currey Road in Bombay.
1925–1949: Electrification and further expansion The first
railway budget was presented in 1924. On 3 February 1925, the first
electric train ran between
Victoria Terminus (VT) and
Kurla, hauled by a
SLM electric locomotive on
1500 V DC traction. Later, the VT–
Bandra section was electrified and the first
electric multiple units (EMU) were introduced in with 1.5KV
DC units imported were from
Cammell Laird and
Uerdingenwagonfabrik. On 1 April 1929,
Grand Trunk Express commenced operations between
Peshawar in the
North Western Railway and
Mangalore with two coaches detached and connected to Madras further. The
Frontier Mail made its inaugural run between Bombay and
Peshawar in 1928. Technical advancements led to automatic colour light signals that become operational between Bombay and Byculla in 1928. In the subsequent years, the route from Bombay to
Poona was electrified and in June 1930, the first deluxe train,
Deccan Queen began running, hauled by a
WCP-1 locomotives with seven coaches along the route. The Grand Trunk express commenced operating as a dedicated daily train between Madras and Delhi from 1 September 1930.
Chennai suburban railway started operating in 1931 with a single
metre gauge line from
Chennai Beach to
Tambaram. In 1944, all the railway companies were taken over by the Government.
Indian railway classification Beginning in 1926 and for statistical purposes, the Government of
British Raj classified Indian railway systems according to three classes. It was a similar system to the
Railroad classes in North America.
Trams,
industrial and port railways were recorded separately and independently of turnover. In terms of net revenue,
East Indian Railway was the largest company in 1927 with 86,881,000 rupees. Followed by the
North Western State Railway with 57,343,000 rupees and the
Great Indian Peninsula Railway with 56,215,000 rupees. No further reclassification was carried out after 1942, but the rankings remained in use until the mid-1950s.
1950–1983: Zonal re-organisation and further developments The first locomotive manufacturing unit at
Chittaranjan was commissioned in 1950. In December 1950, the Central Advisory Committee for Railways approved the plan for re-organising Indian Railways into six
regional zones with the
Southern (14 April 1951),
Central (5 November 1951), and
Western (5 November 1951) zones being the first to be created. On 14 April 1952, the
Northern Railway, the
Eastern Railway and the
North Eastern Railway were created. The first
diesel locomotive used in India was fabricated by
North British Locomotive Company in 1954. On 1 August 1955 the
South-Eastern Railway was split from the Eastern Railway, and, the following year, divisional systems of administration were set up for the various regional zones. The first rail coaches were manufactured in India from 1956 when the
Integral Coach Factory was established at Madras. In 1956, the first
air-conditioned train plied between
Howrah and
New Delhi. In 1958, the North-Eastern Railway split to form a new
Northeast Frontier Railway. The first
containerized freight rail transport began between Bombay and Ahmedabad in 1966. In 1974, Indian Railways endured a 20-day
strike. In 1979, the Main Line Electrification Project was reconstituted into the
Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE). In 1980, the
WAP-1 electric locomotives reached a speed of .
1984–present: Rapid transit and later developments used by the Indian Railways till the late 1990s The first
metro rail was introduced in
Calcutta on 24 October 1984 with the line between
Esplanade and
Bhowanipore. In 1986, computerized ticketing and reservations were introduced by Indian Railways. In 1988, the first
Shatabdi Express was introduced between New Delhi and
Jhansi. In 1993, air-conditioned three-tier and
sleeper were introduced. Centralized computer reservation system was deployed in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai in September 1996, coupon validating machines (CVMs) were introduced at
Mumbai CSMT in 1998 and the nationwide
concierge system began operation on 18 April 1999. The
first line of the
Delhi Metro was inaugurated on 24 December 2002. In 2012, Western Railway switched completely to AC traction with Central Railway following it in 2016. On 1 February 2014,
Mumbai Monorail became the first operational
monorail system in India. In 2015, the first
compressed natural gas (CNG) powered trains were rolled out. On 5 April 2016,
Gatiman Express, then India's fastest train with a maximum speed of , made its first run from to . The central government approved the
merger of the Rail and General budgets from 2017. On 31 March 2017, Indian Railways announced a target of electrifying the entire rail network by 2023. In March 2020, Indian Railways announced a
nationwide shutdown of passenger service to combat the
COVID-19 pandemic in India with the freight operations continuing to transport essential goods. The railways resumed passenger services in a phased manner in May 2020. operating on a
trainset built by
ICF, is the fastest train in India Starting in the 2010s, various infrastructure modernization projects have been undertaken including
high-speed rail, redevelopment of 400 stations,
doubling tracks to reduce congestion, refurbishing of coaches,
Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled tracking of trains and modernization of locomotives. In 2018, a semi-high speed self-propelled
train-set capable of reaching speeds of over was rolled out from ICF and the
Vande Bharat Express was launched in 2019. Indian Railways announced plans to become a net-zero carbon emission railway by 2030 and has implemented
rainwater harvesting at stations,
reforestation along the tracks, introduction of solar-powered trains, installation of
solar and
wind power generation facilities, and
sustainable LED lighting at all the stations. Indian railways removed all unstaffed level crossings by 2019 with staffed level crossings being replaced by bridges. Other safety projects include the extension of an automated
fire alarm system to all air-conditioned coaches and GPS-enabled
Fog Pilot Assistance System railway signalling devices. In 2020, Indian Railways allowed the operation of private passenger trains for the first time with the first train flagged off from
Coimbatore in June 2022. == Freight trains ==