165 Years Ago India's 1st Passenger Train Took Off In Mumbai, With 400 People In 14 Carriages
The Indian Railways network is the fourth-largest in the world, after the US, Russia, and China, covering over 1,21,400 km of track. ItĄ¯s one of the busiest transport systems in the world, carrying over 8.107 billion passengers yearly.
Here in Mumbai, the local trains are a common part of our everyday lives. We take them to and from work everyday, to see relatives, and occasionally even hop on a train to get out of state for a vacation.
India's first passenger train, running over the Dapoorie viaduct in 1854, when it was extended from Bombay to Kalyan
As of last year, the Indian Railways network is the fourth-largest in the world, after the US, Russia, and China, covering over 1,21,400 km of track. ItĄ¯s one of the busiest transport systems in the world, carrying over 8.107 billion passengers and 1.108 billion tonnes of freight a year. ItĄ¯s also interesting just how much these trains have changed over the past 180 years
The first proposal for a railway system in India came from then Madras in 1832, but we only got our first train five years later in 1837. This was the Red Hill Railway, built to transport road-building materials to the city from the Red Hills.
The tech powering very first passenger train in India
File photo
It was much later in 1853 that India got its first passenger train. Hauled by three steam locomotives named Sahib, Sindh and Sultan, it ran the 34 kilometres between Bori Bunder (later rebuilt as Victoria Terminus before being renamed the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) in Mumbai and Thane. The train carried 400 people in 14 carriages for the first time on April 16 exactly 165 years ago today. It was built on a 5 ft 6 in broad gauge track, which is the standard for the majority of tracks we use today.
In fact, the then governor Lord John Elphinstone (who now has a station in Mumbai that's his namesake) flagged off the train on its maiden journey himself.
Eventually, Eastern India got its first train from Howrah in 1854, with the first train in South India arriving in 1856. Electric lighting was first introduced into passenger trains by railway companies in 1897. But it was on February 3, 1925 that the first electric passenger train in India ran between then Victoria Terminus and Kurla, on the Harbour Line, using 1,500 V DC overhead traction. Today, India largely uses electric (25 kV 50 Hz AC) and diesel locomotives, though we also have the world's first compressed natural gas (CNG) trains, and a few steam-powered locomotives at heritage sites.
