Central Railway completes glorious 171 years of pioneering journey 

Indian Railways completed 171 glorious years. The first train in Asia (and India) which ran between Mumbai and Thane on April 16, 1853 was flagged off from Boribunder (the place where CSMT presently stands). As the years passed, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway which ran the first train merged with the Indian Midland Railway Company in 1900 and extended its frontiers from Delhi in the North, Kanpur and Allahabad in the North-east and Nagpur in the East to Raichur in the South-east.  

On 5 November 1951, Central Railway was formed by integrating Nizam State, Scindia State and Dholpur State Railways. Presently Central Railway with its 5 divisions i.e. Mumbai, Bhusaval, Nagpur, Solapur and Pune has a network over 4,275 route km in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. CR serves these states through 466 stations.

From the first train in April 1853 to the most modern train of India, Vande Bharat Express, Railways have successfully expanded its network to the huge area in last 171 years. Presently Central Railway runs 6 Vande Bharat Express trains, viz. CSMT-Sainagar Shirdi, CSMT-Solapur, CSMT-Madgaon, CSMT-Jalna, Nagpur-Bilaspur & Nagpur-Indore Vande Bharat 

Central Railway is also at the forefront with achievement of many firsts. Some notable achievements among them are: first Shatabdi Express, first Jan Shatabdi Express, first Tejas Express to name a few. It has definitely come a long way with some of the oldest trains like Punjab Mail still running and  popular among its passengers even after 100 years. 

Running the first electric train service in India between Bombay VT and Kurla Harbour on 3rd Feb 1925 laid the foundation of Electrification of Railways and Mumbai’s suburban services which today have become the lifeline of Mumbai city.  

Today, Central Railway has achieved 100% electrification and the suburban network has also steadily increased. Presently Central Railway has five suburban corridors. The suburban services which started from 3 coaches have gradually increased to 9 coaches, 12 coaches and some services with 15 coaches. AC suburban services have also been introduced to make travel more convenient and comfortable. 

The originating loading which was 16.58 million tonnes at the time of formation, has now increased to 89.24 million tonnes in the year 2023-24 which is the best ever. Apart from this, infrastructure works like construction of new railway lines, doubling, construction of bridges, construction of new stations etc. are being done at a fast pace which includes the highest volume of 348 kms of Multi-tracking work achieved in this financial year

The Neral-Matheran Light Railway has also completed its glorious 117 years. The Neral-Matheran railway construction started in 1904 and the two feet gauge line finally opened to traffic in 1907. As a precautionary measure, the line used to be closed during the monsoons, however, shuttle services between Aman Lodge and Matheran were introduced from 29.9.2012, to run even in monsoon. Central Railway has undertaken several infrastructural works on this section to ensure a safe and comfortable ride to its passengers and services on Neral – Matheran Narrow Gauge line.

From 1853 to the present, Central Railway has always been and will always strive to be the pioneer in providing the best services and is committed to providing a safe, comfortable and convenient journey to its esteemed passengers.