The India Railway System

The first train on Indian soil ran in Bombay between Bori Bunder to Thane on April 16, 1853. Toilets on Trains were introduced in 1891 in 1st Class & in 1907 in lower classes. The first electric train ran on February 3, 1925 between Bombay VT and Kurla. The production of steam locomotives in the country stopped in 1972.

Today Indian Railways has over 62,000 route kilometer of track and employs about 1.6 million people. 13,000 trains carry daily over 11 million passengers & one million tones of freight from and to 7,000 stations.

Indian Railways' fastest train is the Bhopal-Shatabdi, which runs at a speed up to 140 km/h.

The longest journey on Indian Railways is from Jammu Tawi to Kanyakumari, a distance of about 3,751 km covered by Himsagar Express in about 66 hours.

The longest railway platform in the world is at Kharagpur measuring 2,733 ft in length.

Nehru Setu on river Sone is the longest Railway Bridge.

The longest tunnel is on Konkan Railway, which is 6.5 km in length.

Calcutta METRO is the first and only underground Railway in India.

1981 June 6th. India, Bihar, near Mansi: Train with over 500 passengers hit the emergency brakes to avoid hitting a cow, causing the train to plunge off a bridge into Baghmati River; at least 268 people died, more than 300 others were reported missing

1985 February 23rd. India, Madhya Pradesh, near Rajnandgaon: two bogies of a passenger train caught fire, 50 people died.

1985 June 13th. India, Agra: an express train collided with a freight train; 38 people died and more than 50 were injured.

1986 March 10th. India, Bihar, Khagaria: Two trains collided; about 50 people died and 200 others were injured.

1986 August 6th. India, Bihar, Palamau distrikt: two coaches of an express train fall into a stream after colliding with a stationary freight train; 52 people died and 35 were injured.

1987 July 8th. India, Andra Pradesh, near Macherial: a Dakshin Express derailed; 53 people died.

1988 July 8th. India, Kerala, Ashtamudi lake: an Island Express plunged into the water; 107 people died.

1989 India, Quilon river: The Trivandrum-bound Island Express from Bangalore plunged into the water due to a 'freak typhoon' that occurred when the train crossed the river bridge; 107 people died.

1989 April 18th. India, Uttar Pradesh, near Lalitpur: Karnataka Express derailed; at least 75 people died.

1989 November 1st. India, Bihar, Sakaldiha: Udyan Abha Toofan Express derailed; 48 people died.

1990 April 16th. India, near Patna: a shuttle train caught fire; 70 people died.

1990 June 6th. India, Andhra Pradesh, Gollaguda: train collision; 36 people died.

1990 June 25th. India, Bihar, Daltongunj, Mangra: a freight train crashed into a passenger train; 60 people died.

1990 October 10th. India, Andhra Pradesh, near Cherpalli: fire in a passenger train; 40 people died.

1991 October 31st. India, Karnataka, near Makaligurga: Karnataka Express derailed; 30 people died.

1992 September 5th. India, Madhya Pradesh, near Raigarh: train collision; 41 people died.

1992 July 16th. India, Bihar, Darbhanga: train accident; 60 people died.

1993 September 21st. India, Rajasthan, near Chhabra: Kota-Bina passenger train collided with a freight train; 71 people died.

1994 May 3rd. India, Andhra Pradesh, Nalgonda district: Narayanadri Express rammed into a tractor; 35 people died.

1995 May 14th. India, Tamil Nadu, near Salem: Madras-Kanyakumari Express collided with a freight train; 52 people died.

1995 June 1st. West Bengal and Orissa: Seventy-three people were killed in two separate railway accidents; 73 people died.

1995 August 20th. India, Uttar Pradesh, Firozabad railway station: The Puroshottam Express ploughed into Kalindi Express at a speed of 110 km/h (70 mph). The Kalindi Express had stopped after hitting a cow on the tracks; as many as 400 people died and 120 others were injured.

1996 April 18th. India, Uttar Pradesh, Domingarh, near Gorakhpur: Gorakhpur-Gonda passenger train crashed into a stationary freight train; 60 people died.

1996 May 14th. India, Kerala, near Alappuzha: a bus carrying a marriage party collided with the Ernakulam-Kayamkulam train at an unmanned level-crossing; 35 people died.

1996 May 25th. India, near Varanasi: an Allahabad-bound passenger train crashed into a tractor-trolley at an unmanned level crossing; 25 people died.

1996 December 30th. India, lower Assam, between Kokrajhar and Fakiragram stations: bomb blast on Brahmaputra Mail; 33 people died.

1997 July 8th. India, Punjab, Bhatinda district, Lehra Khanna railway station: a bomb blast in a passenger train; 33 people died.

1997 July 28th. India, outskirts of New Delhi, Faridabad: Karnataka Express collided with Himsagar Express; 12 people died.

1997 September 14th. India, Madhya Pradesh, Bilaspur district: five bogies of Ahmedabad-Howrah express fell into a river; at least 81 people died.

1998 April 24th. India, Madhya Pradesh, Parali Vaijanath (Beed) railway station: 15 wagons of a freight train crashed into the Manmad-Kachiguda Express; 24 people died and 32 were injured.

1998 April 4th. India, near Fatuha: Howrah-Danapur Express derailed on Howrah-Delhi main line between Ratuha and Bankaghat stations; at least 11 people died.

1998 August 13th. India, Tamil Nadu, outskirts of Karur town: a bus crashed into the Chennai-Madurai express train at an unmanned level-crossing on the New Karur-Salem bypass road; 19 people died and 27 were injured.

1998 September 24th. India, Andhra Pradesh, near the village Bottalapalem village: a train engine crashed into an Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation bus at an unmanned level-crossing; 20 people, including 14 school children died, and 33 others were injured.

1998 November 27th.: a Sealdah Express train collided with a number of carriages of the Frontier Golden Mail, which had derailed. The derailment straddled the opposite running line and despite the efforts of one railway man to warn the oncoming train, it was too close to stop in time and prevent the collision; more than 200 people died.

1999 August 1st. India, West Bengal, Gaisal station: Brahmputra Mail train from Guwahati, filled mainly with military personnel hit a stationary Awadh-Assam Express head-on. Fifteen carriages were ripped apart, hurling sleeping passengers around the compartments; at least 400 people died.

1999 June 22nd. India, New Jalpaiguri railway station: explosion; at least 9 passengers, including 2 Indian soldiers headed for Kashmir, died, 85 others were injured, including 10 soldiers.

1999 July 16th. India, near Mathura: Delhi-bound Grand Trunk Express from Chennai collided with derailed wagons of a freight train; 17 people died and more than 200 were injured.

2001 June 22nd. India, Kerala, near Kozhikode: due to the collapse of an ageing bridge three coaches of the Mangalore-Madras Mail tumbled into the Kadalundi River; 52 people died.

2001 August 23rd. India, Bariar near Pathankot: at the unmanned railway crossing a vehicle t Bariar collided with the Ravi Express train; at least 11 people died.

2001 August 16th. India, Jalgaon district, Maharasthra: At least 15 people, including eight women and two children were run over by a train while crossing a track in Maharashtra. They were hit after they exited a train that halted briefly between stations about 450 km from Mumbai.

Bihar, Jumui station: a freight train slammed into a stationary Muzzafarpur-Sealdah passenger train; 4 people died and at least 50 were injured.

2002 September 9th. India, Bihar, Aurangabad district: a bogie of Howrah-Delhi Rajdhani Express plunged into the Dhave river; at least 100 people died, more than 150 were injured.

2003 January 5th. India, Maharashtra, Ghatnandur station: the Secunderabad-Manmad express train rammed into a stationary freight train; at least 21 people died and 41 were injured.

2003 January 11th. India: the locomotive and 10 coaches of the Dibrugarh bound Kamrup Express from Howrah derailed due to a fractured rail. No fatalities.

2003 March 23rd. India, Madhya Pradesh, near Narsinghpur: 13 bogies of Lokmanya Tilak Superfast Express from Patna to Mumbai derailed between Bohani and Kareli stations; 7 people were injured.

2003 May 15th India, near Ladhowal railway station, 10 km from Ludhiana: three coaches of Amritsar-bound Frontier Mail caught fire; 38 people died and 13 were injured.

2003 May 28th. India, Ferozepur: the engine and three bogies of a local train caught fire; all 400 people aboard survived.

2003 June 1st. India, Baruna-Barasia section of Danapur division, near Buxar: 14 coaches of the Patna-New Delhi Magadh Vikramshila Express derailed; 1 passenger died and at least 25 others were injured.

2003 June 23rd. India, Maharashtra, Sindhudurg district : the first three coaches and engine of the Karwar-Mumbai Central Holiday Special train derailed after crossing Vaibhavwadi station; 51 people, including three children died, 25 others were injured.

2003 July 2nd. India, Andhra Pradesh, Warangal: the locomotive and two adjoining coaches felt off a bridge after the brakes failed to stop the train; at least 22 people aboard and on the ground died.

2004 June 16th - Western India, 105 miles south of Mumbai (formerly Bombay): The Matsyagandha Express, en-route from Mangalore to Bombay wrecked near Karanjadi. After hitting a boulder washed onto the tracks by recent heavy rainfall, the train's engine and three cars fell from a 65 foot (20 meter) high bridge and another seven cars derailed; at least 15 people died and 50 others were injured.