The Thane viaducts, the first railway bridges, were built over the Thane creek when the Mumbai-Thane line was extended to Kalyan in May 1854. Eastern India's first passenger train ran 39 km (24 mi) from Howrah, near Kolkata, to Hoogly on 15 August 1854.The construction on the first main line in the South between Royapuram in Madras and Arcot started in 1853, which became operational on 1 July 1856.On 24 February 1873, a horse-drawn 3.8 km (2.4 mi) tram opened in Calcutta between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat street.On 9 May 1874, a horse-drawn tramway began operation in Bombay between Colaba and Parel.[13] In 1879, the Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway was established which built railway lines across the then Hyderabad State from Kachiguda.In 1877, an Ajmer built F-1/734 Steam Locomotive became the first indigenously built locomotive in India. In 1897, lighting in passenger coaches was introduced with Jodhpur Railway, the first to introduce electric lighting as standard fixtures.The first railway budget was presented in 1924. On 3 February 1925, the first electric train ran between Bombay and Kurla, hauled by a SLM electric locomotive on DC traction. In 1925, the first Electric Multiple Units (EMU) were introduced in Bombay with 1500 V DC units imported were from Cammell Laird and Uerdingenwagonfabrik. Chennai suburban railway started operating in 1931 with a single metre gauge line from Chennai Beach to Tambaram. In 1944, all the railway companies were taken over by the Government.
In December 1950, the Central Advisory Committee for Railways approved the plan for re-organising Indian Railways into six regional zones with the Southern (14 April 1951), Central (5 November 1951), and Western (5 November 1951) zones being the first to be created.In 1952, fans and lights were mandated for all compartments in passenger trains and sleeping accommodations were introduced in coaches.The first diesel locomotive used in India was fabricated by North British Locomotive Company in 1954.
A typical red-colored ICF coach used by the Indian Railways till the late 1990s
The first locomotive manufacturing unit at Chittaranjan was commissioned in 1950. The first rail coaches were manufactured in India from 1956 when the Integral Coach Factory was established at Madras.[23] In 1956, the first air-conditioned train plied between Howrah and New Delhi. In 1957, Indian Railways adopted 25 kV AC traction with the first runs beginning in December 1959 with the WAM-1 locomotives.The first containerized freight rail transport began between Bombay and Ahmedabad in 1966.[6] In 1969, the Government of India announced the introduction of a new express train capable of reaching speeds of up to 120 km/h (75 mph) in the railway budget and the first Rajdhani Express was flagged off from New Delhi to Howrah in March 1969. In 1974, Indian Railways endured a 20-day strike.The first metro rail was introduced in Calcutta on 24 October 1984.[29]
In 1986, computerized ticketing and reservations were introduced.[30] In 1988, the first Shatabdi Express was introduced between New Delhi and Jhansi. Two years later, the first self-printing ticket machine (SPTM) was introduced in Delhi.[31] In 1993, air-conditioned three-tier and sleeper were introduced. In 1995, Chennai MRTS became the first operational elevated railway line in India. Centralized computer reservation system was deployed in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai in September 1996, coupon validating machines (CVMs) were introduced at Mumbai CSMT in 1998 and the nationwide concierge system began operation on 18 April 1999.
The Indian Railways website went online in February 2000. Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) was incorporated in 1999 and online ticketing was introduced on 3 August 2002 through IRCTC. In 2015, the first Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered trains were rolled out.Since 1925, the Railway budget was presented before the Union budget till 2016. The central government approved the merger of the Rail and General budgets from 2017.On 31 March 2017, Indian Railways announced a target of electrifying the entire rail network would be electrified by 2023. In March 2020, Indian Railways announced a nationwide shutdown of passenger service to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in India with the freight operations continuing to transport essential goods. The railways resumed passenger services in a phased manner in May 2020.
Introduced in 2019, Vande Bharat Express operating on a train-set built by ICF, is the fastest train in India
Starting in the 2010s, various infrastructure modernization projects have been undertaken including high-speed rail, redevelopment of 400 stations, doubling tracks to reduce congestion, refurbishing of coaches,Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled tracking of trains and modernization of locomotives.In 2018, a semi-high speed self-propelled train-set capable of reaching speeds of over 160 km/h (99 mph) was rolled out from ICF and the Vande Bharat Express was launched in 2019.Indian Railways announced plans to become a net-zero carbon emission railway by 2030 and has implemented rainwater harvesting at stations,reforestation along the tracks, introduction of solar-powered trains, installation of solar and wind power generation facilities,and sustainable LED lighting at all the stations.Indian railways removed all unstaffed level crossings by 2019 with staffed level crossings being replaced by bridges.Other safety projects include the extension of an automated fire alarm system to all air-conditioned coaches and GPS-enabled Fog Pilot Assistance System railway signalling devices.In 2020, Indian Railways allowed the operation of private passenger trains for the first time with the first train flagged off from Coimbatore in June 2022.
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