Zonal Railways! Western Railway of Indian Railways

Western Railway in its present form came into existence on 5th November, 1951 by the merger of its forerunner, the erstwhile Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway (BB&CI), with other State Railways viz, Saurashtra, Rajputana and Jaipur. The BB&CI Railway was itself incorporated in 1855, starting with the construction of a 29 mile broad gauge track from Ankleshwar to Utran in Gujarat state on the West Coast. In 1864, the railway was extended up to Mumbai. Subsequently, the project was further extended beyond Baroda in a north easterly direction towards Godhra, Ratlam, Nagda and thereafter northwards towards Mathura to eventually link with the Great India Peninsula Railway, now Central Railway, which had already started operating in Mumbai in 1853. In 1883, a Metre Guage Railway system, initially linking Delhi with Agra, Jaipur and Ajmer, was established.

The Government of India took over the management of the BB&CI railway from 1.1.1942. In 1949, the Gaikwad Baroda State Railway was merged with the BB&CI Railway. After Western Railway came into being certain further jurisdictional changes were effected. The gauge-wise kilometrage of Western Railways as at present, is as under:

Broad Gauge

4147.37 kms.

Metre Gauge

1412.39 kms.

Narrow Gauge

621.70 kms.

TOTAL

6181.46 kms.

Western Railway serves entire Gujarat, part of Rajasthan and some portion of Madhya Pradesh. Western Railway now comprises of six divisions viz. Mumbai, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Ratlam, Rajkot and Bhavnagar. Two erstwhile divisions viz. Jaipur and Ajmer were merged into North West Railway on 1st October 2002 and Kota division was made a part of West Central Railway on 1st April 2003. A new division i.e. Ahmedabad was created on 1st April 2003. The Western coast of India served by Western Railway has a number of ports, important among them being Kandla, Mundra, Pipavav, Navlakhi, Bedi, Rozi, Okha and Bhavnagar.

Mumbai Suburban Railway Network

The suburban section of Western Railway in Mumbai extends from Churchgate, the city's business centre to Virar covering a distance of 60 Kms and 28 stations. The section has been extended to Dahanu Road adding 10 more stations and 60 Kms. The first electric train on this section was introduced in 1928 between Colaba and Andheri.

Today, of 14 million people travelling per day by the Indian Railways, around 7 million people travel per day on Mumbai Suburban section alone. Of the 2700 plus services run in Mumbai 1305 services which includes 1165 twelve car services and thirty 15 car services are run by Western Railway with a phenomenal frequency of 3 minutes during peak hours. Western Railway carries more than 3.5 million passengers per day.

Western Railway was first in the world to start an exclusive Ladies Special Train between Churchgate and Virar.

Western Railway is a pioneer in implementing the state of art 'Train Management System' (TMS) over its suburban section till Virar. TMS gives real time in formation of train movement to commuters. The actual count down of train expected in minutes is displayed at the stations with automatic announcements.

Milestones

Sr. No Year Milestones 1 1853 First Train inaugurated from Bori Bunder to Thane on 16 April 2 1855 BB&CI Railway Company incorporated by Act of British Parliament on 2 July, BB&CI signs agreement with British East India Company on 21 Nov to construct railway line from Surat to Baroda and Ahmedabad. 3 1860 BB&CI first section from Ankleshwart to Utran inaugurated 4 1862 Asias's first Narrow Gauge line opened between Dabhoi and Miyagam (Near Vadodara) 5 1862 BB&CI introduces worlds first Double Decker coaches 6 1864 BB&CI train reaches Mumbai, runs between Grant road to Valsad 7 1867 Local service commences between Virar and Back Bay on 12 April 8 1896 BB&CI reaches Delhi, links to GIP railway at Mathura 9 1870 CCG Station Opened 10 1873 Line extended to Colaba terminus 11 1899 BB&CI Headquarters building completed in January 12 1928 First electric suburbsn train ran from Colaba to Borivali 13 1930 Colaba station closed.CCG becomes the new suburban Terminus 14 1951 BB&CI renamed Western Railway on 5 November 15 1961 9-coach suburban trains introduced on 3 March 16 1972 Mumbai-New Delhi Rajdhani introduced 17 1972 Total no. of suburban services crossed 500 (501 trains) 18 1986 12 coach service started on DDR-VR section 19 1992 Worlds first Ladies Special service introduced on WR 20 1992 Exclusive Accommodation for Senior Citizens introduced in suburban trains 21 1994 CVMs introduced on WR 22 2001 Introducing of First DC/AC twelve car suburban service 23 2002-03 Western Railway reorganised 24 2003 Train Management system started on Mumbai Suburban 25 2003 Number of suburban services per day crossed 1000 26 2006 First UTS started over suburban section 27 2007 Indian Railways' first ATVMs introduced on WR 28 2007 New state of the art EMU rake introduced on suburban section 29 2009 15 car trains introduced 30 2011 15 car trains extended till Churchgate 31 2011 Vileparle-Borivali section charged with 25KV-AC 32 2012 Last DC train ran on W.Rly on 5thFeb 33 2012 Churchgate-Vileparle section charged on 25KV AC current on 6thFeb 34 2013  9 car services phased out from Main Line 35 2013  Suburban EMU trains extended upto Dahanu Rd 36 2013   150th year of arrival of trains on Western lines in Mumbai 37 2013   First premium AC special train between Mumbai-New Delhi route with dynamic pricing 38 2014    Fixed denomination windows for speedy dispersal of Suburban tickets