Central Railway, the successor to GIP Railway completed 73 glorious years on its formation day and begins its 74th year on 5th November 2024. The first train in Asia (and India) ran between Mumbai and Thane on Saturday, April 16, 1853. As the years passed, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway with the merger of the Indian Midland Railway Company with the GIP Railway Company in year 1900, its frontiers were extended from Delhi in the North, Kanpur and Allahabad in the North-east and Nagpur in the East to Raichur in the South-east. Thus, through connection from Bombay was obtained to almost all parts of India. The route mileage of the G.I.P. Railway was 1,600. (2575 km).
On 5 November 1951, Central Railway was formed by integrating Nizam State, Scindia State and Dholpur State Railways with Great Indian Peninsular Railway. In the year 2003, Central Railway which had 8 divisions reorganised to 5 divisions with the creation of seven more zones, wherein, Jabalpur and Bhopal Divisions of Central Railway were included in West Central Railway and Jhansi Division was included in North Central Railway. At present, there are 5 divisions on Central Railway i.e. Mumbai, Bhusaval, Nagpur, Solapur and Pune. Central Railway's network is spread over 4,219 route km in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka and has a total of 492 stations.
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Central Railway has achieved many firsts in last 73 years. Some notable achievements among them are: first Shatabdi Express, first Jan Shatabdi Express, first Tejas Express to name a few. Central Railway is at the forefront of continuous development. The originating loading which was 16.58 metric tonnes (I.e. 0.0000165 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 loading in the history of CR. In 1951, Central Railway carried 224 million passengers, which has increased to 1583 million passengers in the financial year 2023-24.
Mumbai's suburban services are the lifeline of Mumbai. Central Railway has steadily increased the suburban network and today it has four 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. At present Central Railway runs 1850 (Mumbai 1810 and Pune 40) suburban services. Apart from this, infrastructure works like construction of new railway lines, doubling, third and fourth lines, electrification, construction of bridges, construction of new stations etc. are being done at a fast pace. Central Railway has completed a record 348 kms multi-tracking during Financial year 2023-24.
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.
