Indian Railways Interesting Facts First/Longest/Oldest in Indian Railways

Indian Railway is certainly the 'Lifeline of the Nation' with its commendable performance since the last 150 years. Indian Railways is known to be the largest railway network in Asia and world's largest railway system under a single management. IR employs about 1.6 million people, making itself the second largest commercial or utility employer in the world.


IR boasts of more than 7,500 railway stations in its periphery. It has a fleet of not less than 7800 locomotives, 40,000 coaches & 3,26,000 wagons. 9 pairs of Rajdhani and 13 pairs of Shatabdi Express Trains run on the rail tracks of India. In 1977, the National Rail Museum was established at New Delhi. Given here is a list providing some interesting and amazing facts about Indian Railways.

Following are the some of the important Indian Railway Facts

• The total distance covered by the 14,300 trains on the Indian Railways everyday, equals three & half times the distance to moon
• The first train on Indian soil ran between Bombay and Thane on the 16th of April 1853
• IR has about 63,028 route kms. of track
• IR employs about 1.55 million people
• It carries over 13 million passengers & 1.3 million tones of freight everyday
• It runs about 14,300 trains daily
• IR has about 7,000 railway stations
• The longest platform in the world is at Kharagpur and is 2,733 ft. in length
• Nehru Setu on Sone River is the longest Railway bridge
• 42 Railway companies operated in the country before independence
• Electric Locomotives are manufactured at Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Chittaranjan
• Coaches are manufactured at ICF/Chennai, RCF/Kapurthala and BEML/Bangaluru
• The national Rail Museum at New Delhi was set-up in 1977
• People Employed in Indian Railway are about 1.6 million
• Stations across State Lines are Navapur (Maharashtra and Gujarat) and Bhawani Mandi (Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan)
• Classes of travel on Indian Railway: Ist AC, 2nd AC, 3rd AC, AC Chair Car IInd sleeper & IInd ordinary
• Railway Station with all the Three Gauges is Siliguri Railway Station

First/Longest/Oldest in Indian Railways

First Passenger Train Ran On	16th April 1853 (between Bombay to Thane)
First Railway Bridge	Dapoorie Viaduct on the Mumbai-Thane route
First Rail Tunnel	Parsik Tunnel
First Ghats Covered by the Rail lines	Thal and Bhore Ghats
First Underground Railway	Calcutta METRO
First Computerized Reservation System started in	New Delhi (1986)
First Electric Train ran on	3rd Feb' 1925 (between Bombay VT and Kurla)
Toilets on Trains were introduced in	1891 (1st Class) & 1907 (lower classes)
Shortest Station Name	Ib (Orissa)
Longest Station Name	Sri Venkatanarasimharajuvariapeta (Tamil Nadu)
Busiest Railway Station	Lucknow (64 trains everyday)
Longest Run (Time)	Dibrugarh Town - Kanyakumari Vivek Express (4286km in 82:30 hours)
Shortest Run	Route between Nagpur to Ajni (3km)
Longest Run for Daily Train	Kerala Express (3054 km in 42.5 hrs)
Longest Non-Stop Run (Distance)	Trivandrum Rajdhani (528 km in 6.5 hrs)
Longest Railway Platform in the World	Kharagpur (2,733 ft in length)
Longest Railway Bridge	Nehru Setu on Sone River (10044ft in length)
Longest Tunnel	Karbude On Konkan Railway between Monkey hill & Khandala (6.5 km)
Oldest Preserved Locomotive	Fairy Queen (1855), still in working order
Indian Railway's Fastest Train	Bhopal-Shatabdi (runs at a speed up to 140 Km/ph)
Train with Maximum Number of Halts	Howrah-Amritsar Express (115 halts)