First in Indian Railways

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1. The first train was run in 1853(16 April) 21 miles from Bombay (Boribandar) to
Thane.
2. The first passenger train steamed out of Howrah station destined for Hooghly, a
distance of 24 miles, on 15th August, 1854.
3. The first electric train in 1925 was run by Great Indian Peninsular Railway at
Bombay.
4. First Rajdhani Express (between Howrah and Delhi ) started on 01 Mar 1969.
5. The first under ground railway in India started in Kolkata in 1984.
6. Computerised Passenger Reservation system was introduced in Indian Railways in
1986.
7. The computerised passenger reservation system (PRS) of Indian Railways is the
largest passenger reservation network in the world,available at 2,222 locations with
more than 8074 terminals.
8. The First Duronto Express train (point-to-point train) started in September 2009 from
Sealdah to New Delhi.

Longest in Indian Railways

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9. The longest platform in the world is in Kharagpur (2733 ft).
10. The longest rail journey is between Dibrugarh and Kanniya Kumari (4286 km)
performed by Vivek Express, introduced in 2011. Prior to this, Himsagar Express
covered the longest distance from Jammu Tawi to Kanniya Kumari (3751 km).
11. Vembanad Railway Bridge connecting Edappally and Vallarpadam with a length of
4.62 km is the longest rly bridge in India.
12. The longest railway tunnel, the Pir Panjal Railway Tunnel (between Qazigund and
Banihal) has a length of 10.96 km. The work on the tunnel was completed in October
2011. Prior to this the longest railway tunnel was the Karbude Tunnel of length 6.5 km
in Maharashtra and a part of the Konkan railways.

Miscellaneous Information
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13. Konkan railway passes through Sahyadari mountains in the western ghats. It
connects Mumbai and Mangalore.
14. India with railroad network of 63,974 km (as on 31.03.2010) ranks fourth in the
world after the US, Russia and China.
15. The total electrified route of Indian Railways is 18,927 kms (as on 31.03.2010).
16. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, The Kalka Shimla
Railway collectively known as Mountain Railways of India are classified as a world
heritage site by UNESCO.
17. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, formerly known as Victoria Terminus Station, in
Mumbai is also a World Heritage Site.
18. Bholu, an elephant is the mascot of Indian Railways.
19. Fairy Queen is the worlds oldest working steam locomotive plying from New Delhi
to Alwar.
20. World's first railway timetables were designed by George Bradshaw.
21. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway has a rack section of the line, from Kallar to Coonoor
(elevation 1,712 m). This is the only place where rack system is used in Indian
Railways.
22. The station which has all the three gauges viz narrow, metre and broad is Siliguri
station.
23. The scheme of the Indian Railways to issue travel passes priced at Rs. 25 to the
poor whose monthly income is below Rs 1,500 and which enables them to travel upto
150 kms (as proposed in Railway Budget 2012-13) in general class and second class
trains is called Izzat.