Indian Railway Journey

If you are in an emergency and you cannot obtain reservation for your journey in the Indian railway, you will experience not just nightmare but simply hell while being alive and breathing on this beautiful planet. Tourists who travel without reservation are destined to survive in the unreserved compartments. It is a cattle-class virtually and hordes of commuters are herded into the compartments where you have to breathe out into the nostrils of your companion. This may be an over-simplification of the milieu in which under-privileged and ill-fated citizenry is packed like sardines sans ‘breathing-space’. Leaving the sardonic vein, when viewed in a “brutally positive” perspective, this whole violence, sound and fury of an Indian railway journey is an efficacious ‘exercise in national integration’. Here the catholicity of Indian populace consisting of the myriad of cultural, linguistic and regional identities fret and fume, sweat and swear and in the process have to mix and merge till the end of the journey.

Indian railway journey is a nightmare if viewed in a realistic perspective. The problems are due to multiple reasons characteristic of any heavily-populated developing economy. The agonies of commuters destined to travel in unreserved compartments are all the more harrowing. The compartments will be over-crowded and often thick-packed. The bulk of the traveling population is under-privileged and under-educated and they indulge in all actions of creature comforts and thus adding to the agony of all.

The Nightmare of Indian Railway Journey

Indian railway journey is a nightmare if viewed in a realistic perspective. In the first instance, you will encounter an avalanche of confusions and contradictions from the time you try to book your berth on a particular train. Very often, the information you receive at the enquiry counter may not be very reliable since graft and black-marketeering are endemic in the system. Characteristic of the paraphernalia of any developing economic system, the Indian railway is plagued by unending anomalies. Interestingly, all these maladies pile up on the ill-fated tax-payer who, while sustaining the system, bears the brunt of its pitfalls also!

Indian Railways to start special train to promote Games

Indian Railways will soon launch a special train to promote the Commonwealth Games 2010 which is going to be held next year in our country.

The Ministry of Railways will join hands with the Ministries of Communication and IT and Youth Affairs and Sports to launch the train, which will travel across the country to promote sportsmanship among the youth and games, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee said in New Delhi on Monday.

She said, adding "The train will start in November this year and travel to each and every state during the next 12 months."

The Games will be held in India in October 2010.

The purpose of the game is not only to promote sports and common wealth games but also to spread IT education and awarness across the country,the minister said. She also said that her ministry is also in talks with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kharagpur for its participation in the railway's efforts to spread IT education across the country.

Railways to start two Duronto trains

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee will flag off two non- stop Duronto Sewa trains before Durga Puja festival begins Sep 25 this year. Indian Railways will be starting at least two Duronto Sewa trains, one from New Delhi to Sealdah and other from New Delhi to Chennai. The New Delhi-Chennai Duronto service is likely to start in the second week of September 2009.

The service to Sealdah is expected to start a week later. Both trains will be bi-weekly with only two or three technical stoppages, and will have both air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned coaches. The New Delhi-Sealdah will take 16 hours to cover the journey, as against 17 hours taken by Rajdhani Express.

Lifeline of India - Indian Railway

Indian Railway is called the lifeline of India and considered to be the most safe and reliable mode of transportation which is serving the nation for the past 150 years. Indian Railways is also one of a major employer of the country as it provides jobs to 1.6 million people in the country.

Some major achievements of Indian railways are

* It is one of the largest railway system in the world providing transport links through 63,140 routes.

* A wide fleet with 7800 locomotives, 40,000 coaches, 3,26,000 wagons, 9 pairs of Rajdhani and 13 pair of Shatabdi Express is currently operated on almost daily basis.

* Indian Railways operates 11,000 trains, and transports more than 1 million tonnes freight regularly. Amongst 11.000 trains, 7000 trains are used by people for commuting purposes.

* The classes of travel available on Indian Railways are 1st AC, 2nd AC, 3rd AC, AC Chair Car, IInd Sleeper and IInd Ordinary Class.

* Indian Railways has surely kept up the pace with the revolution in information technology. You can easily check out loads of information about Indian Railways, their achievements, records and statistics as well. Indian Railways Online is definitely a marvelous surprise as apart from this information you can get your train tickets booked, canceled as well. You can know the train status, its scheduled as well current arrival and departure times as well, its availability status and other vital information as well.

Facts about Indian Railways

Indian Railways are certainly the 'Lifeline of the Nation' since the last 150 years. Indian Railways are known to be the largest railway network in Asia as well as world's largest railway system under a single management. IR has about 1.6 million people employed, making itself the second largest commercial or utility employer in the world.

IR has boasted of more than 7,500 railway stations. It has a fleet of about 7800 locomotives, 40,000 coaches 3,26,000 wagons. 9 pairs of Rajdhani and 13 pairs of Shatabdi Express Trains run on the rail tracks of India. In the year 1977, the National Rail Museum was established at New Delhi. Here is a list providing some interesting and amazing facts about Indian Railways.

First Passenger Train Ran On- 16th April 1853 (between Bombay to Thane)

First Railway Bridge- Dapoorie Viaduct on the Mumbai-Thane route

First Ghats Covered by the Rail lines- Thal and Bhore Ghats

First Computerized Reservation System started in- New Delhi (1986)

First Electric Train ran on- 3rd Feb' 1925 (between Bombay VT and Kurla)

Toilets on Trains were introduced in- 1891 (1st Class) 1907 (lower classes)

Shortest Station Name- Ib (Orissa)

Longest Station Name- Sri Venkatanarasimharajuvariapeta (Tamil Nadu)

Shortest Run- Route between Nagpur to Ajni (3km)

Longest Non-Stop Run (Distance)- Trivandrum Rajdhani (528 km in 6.5 hrs)

Longest Railway Platform in the World- Kharagpur (2,733 ft in length)

Longest Railway Bridge- Nehru Setu on Sone River (10044ft in length)

Oldest Preserved Locomotive- Fairy Queen (1855), still in working order

Gauges of Track- 4 Gauges; BG (5'6"), MG (1 metre), NG (2)

IR Daily Runs- About 14,000 trains

IR Daily Carries- More than 11 million passengers 1 million tonnes of freight

Railway Station with all the Three Gauges - Siliguri Railway Station

Railway zones in Indian Railway

Indian Railways is one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world which transports over 18 million passengers and about 2 million tonnes of freight daily.Indian Railways has been divided into zones and which are further sub-divided into divisions.The Indian Railways increased its zones from six to eight in 1951, nine in 1952, and finally it reaches upto 16 in 2003. The total number of divisions are sixty-seven in numbers.Each zonal railway is has a certain number of divisions and each having a divisional headquarters.

The Kolkata Metro is operated by Indian Railways, but is not a part of any of the zones. Kolkata Metro is administratively considered to have the status of a zonal railway.

All the sixteen zones including Kolkata Metro is headed by a General Manager who reports directly to the Railway Board.And the divisions further are under the control of Divisional Railway Managers (DRM). The divisional officers of engineering, mechanical, signal & telecommunication, personnel, operating, commercial and safety branches report to their respective Divisional Manager. Further in the hierarchy tree comes the Station Masters who control individual stations and the train movement through the track territory under their stations' administration under their supervision.