Central Railway
Press Release
Central Railway – Glorious 172 Years of Pioneering Journey
Indian Railways completed 172 glorious years. The first train in Asian subcontinent (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 4322.55 route km in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. CR serves these states through 492 stations.
From the first train in April 1853 to the most modern train of India, Vande Bharat Express, Railways have successfully expanded its network in last 172 years. Presently Central Railway runs 10 Vande Bharat Express trains, viz. CSMT-Sainagar Shirdi, CSMT-Solapur, CSMT-Madgaon, CSMT-Jalna, Nagpur-Bilaspur, Nagpur-Indore, Nagpur – Secunderabad, Kalaburgi – Benguluru, Pune – Hubli and Pune - Kolhapur 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.
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 even services with 15 coaches. AC suburban services have also been introduced to make travel more convenient and comfortable. From today onwards 14 more AC services have been introduced taking the total number of AC Services to 80 on Mumbai suburban.
The originating loading which was 16.58 million tonnes at the time of formation, has now increased to 82.52 million tonnes in the year 2024-25. Apart from this, infrastructure works like construction of new railway lines, doubling, construction of bridges, and 80 stations being upgraded under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme (ABSS).
The Neral-Matheran Light Railway has also completed its glorious 118 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 NG 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.
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Date: April 16, 2025
PR No.2025/04/19
This press release is issued by the Public Relations Department, Central Railway Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus Mumbai
