Indian Railway Network

Indian Railway

The Indian Railways is one of the world's largest railway networks comprising 115,000 km of track over a route of 65,000 km and 7,500 stations. 

The idea of a railway to connect Bombay with Thane and Kalyan first occurred to George Clark, the Chief Engineer of the Bombay government, during a visit to Bhandup in 1843. The first railway on Indian sub-continent operated over a stretch of 21 miles from Bombay to Thane in 1853. The Railway service was formally inaugurated on 16 April 1853, when 14 railway carriages carrying about 400 guests left Bori Bunder, Mumbai. The first passenger train steamed out of Howrah station to Hooghly, a distance of 24 miles on 15 August, 1854.

In 1951 the system was nationalized, making Indian Railways one of the largest networks in the world.  The train services are used by over 25 million passengers daily (over 9 billion on an annual basis). Indian Railways is the world's ninth largest commercial employer, with over 1.4 million employees.

The United States has the world's longest railway network, followed by China and India.

Largest Railway network of world

1.      United States - 224,792 km

2.      Russia – 87,157 km

3.      China - 86,000 km

4.      India - 63,974 km

5.      Canada - 46,552 km

6.      Germany - 41,981 km

7.      Australia - 38,445 km

8.      Argentina - 36,966 km

9.      France - 29,640 km

10.  Brazil - 28,538 km