On April 16, 1853, the first passenger train in Asia was run on a short 34 km route between Mumbai and Thane, ushering in a new era in public transportation that would prove to be a game-changer for the development and prosperity of the nation over the following 17 decades.
At Boribunder station, where the towering Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus currently stands, the maiden train was waved off with 14 new wooden carriages packed with 400 anxious and joyful passengers for their first day out on the tracks.
Three mysteriously named engines, 'Sahib', 'Sindh', and 'Sultan', pulled the first passenger service at 3.35 p.m. that day. They blew off loud whistles, belched out thick smoke and steam, and soon chugged into the historic journey, accompanied by a thunderous 21-gun salute, thunderous cheers, and claps of those who witnessed the first rail history in British India.
The arduous preparation for that historic journey began around 30 years prior with the construction of an experimental railway line in Madras, followed by the inauguration of passenger service on the Mumbai-Thane section.
Indians quickly became accustomed to the quick, affordable, and secure means of train transport, unlike the outdated railways in many other nations.
The railways quickly expanded to other regions of India with wings and tracks. The first passenger train ran its 39 km route between Howrah and Hooghly on August 15, 1854. On July 1, 1856, it ran its 53 km route between Hathras Road and Mathura Cantt. in the north. On October 19, 1875, it ran its 39 km route between Veyasarpandy and Walajah Road in the south (Madras Presidency).
Despite the country experiencing historic events like the First War of Independence, which began on May 10, 1857, and sparked one of the largest freedom movements in modern history lasting 90 years, India had a 9,000 km railway network spanning the length and breadth of the sub-continent by 1880 with these modest beginnings.
The Indian Railways, as it is now known, has grown tremendously over the past 170 years to become the second-largest multi-gauge railroad system in the world with more than 108,000 km of operating lines. It safely and reliably carries people, animals, and cargo to some of the most remote regions of the nation while navigating plains, forests, deserts, and snow-capped mountains.
The Indian Railways began operating on the first electrified 15 km route between Mumbai's Victoria Terminus (today, CSMT) and Kurla Harbour in February 1925, beginning with the large, very polluting steam locomotives.
It even switched to diesel locos at one time in August 1955, but these were eventually abandoned as oil prices rose over the years.
However, electrification accelerated and, according to official figures through 2022, Indian Railways has become 80% electrified over the past 100 years, providing a less expensive, more environmentally friendly, and speedier option.
The railway network had several owners and "fathers" during British control, but following Independence, the first forward-thinking Railway Ministers, John Mathai, N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, and Lal Bahadur Shastri, started the process of consolidation into a single compact body.
Starting in 1951, numerous divisions including Central Railway, Western Railway, Northern Railway, and Southern Railway were created and separated into zones; these later grew in number in accordance with regional expansion and needs.
Many of the railway systems that were formerly held by private persons, businesses, princely states, monarchs, and other separate entities in various territories were combined or integrated into Indian Railways, which today essentially controls the entire standardized network.
Chief spokesperson for Central Railway Shivaji Sutar stated that the Indian Railways had come a long way with thousands of services every day since that modest beginning on April 16, 1853.
They consist of some of the oldest services that have been in operation for more than a century, such as long-distance trains like passengers, mails and expresses, Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Tejas, as well as upscale tourist excursions like Palace on Wheels, special toy trains or hill-trains, and more recently, Vande Bharat trains, suburban trains, all-female trains and even women loco pilots.
The first Bullet Train will start zipping between Ahmedabad and Mumbai in a few years, ushering in the next phase of high-speed train travel for the nation's rail system.
