FACTS AND FIGURES: INDIAN RAILWAYS

Unparalleled in Size, Scale and Operations Indian Railways is the World's Largest Rail Network. Here are some mind blowing facts and figures about Indian Railways.

Indian Railways is 163 years old.

"16th APRIL, 1853. ITS A LONG LIVED LEGACY"

Seventh Largest Commercial Employer

Total Number of Employees: 13,26,000 (2014-15)

"1 out every 1000 people in India."

Total Track Route: 67,312 km (BG: 59400, MG: 6000, NG: 1912)

"Fourth Largest Rail Network in the World, behind US 250,00km, China 121,000km and Russia 86,000km"

Total Rail Track Length: 116,000 km

"If the tracks of Indian railways were to be laid out, they would circle the earth almost 1.5 times"

Total Running Rail Track Length: 90,803 km

Total Electrified Route Trackage : 20,884 km

Total Number of Railway Stations: 7137

"The Longest Railway Platform in World is Gorakhpur Railway Station, Uttar Pradesh, India:1,366.33 m (4,483 ft)"

     Image source; Wikipedia

"Oldest Station -Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus"

   Image source: trekearth

Total Number of Locomotives: 10,773

Total Number of Electric Locomotives: 5016

List of all Electric Locomotives

WAM4 | WAP1 | WAP4 | WAP5  | WAP7 | WAG5 | WAG6 | WAG7 | WAG9 | WCAM1 | WCAM2 | WCAM3 | WCAG1 | WCM6 

Biggest electric loco sheds: Vijayawada (SCR) and Bhilai (SECR) 

Quantity of fuel consumed: 15,750 Million KWH

Total Number of Diesel Locomotives: 5714

WDM2 | WDM3A | WDM3D | WDP1 | WDP3A | WDG3A | WDP4 | WDG4

Biggest Diesel Loco Shed: Visakhapatnam (ECoR) 

Quantity of fuel consumed: 2,856,185 Kilo-Litres

Total Number of Steam Locomotives: 43

The FAIRY QUEEN is a steam locomotive, plying between the Indian capital of New Delhi and Alwar, in Rajasthan. It was certified by the Guinness Book of Records in 1998 as being the World's Oldest One in Regular Operation.

 PIC'S CREDIT: IRFCA

Total Distance Travelled by all trains in a Year: 1.1 billion km

Fastest Train: India New Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi Express is the fastest train in India: runs at a speed up to 150 Kmph

Slowest train in India : Metupalayam Ooty Nilgiri Passenger which runs at a speed of 10kmph, 15 times slower than fastest running train.

Longest Run (Time) Vivek Express from Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari travels a distance of 4273 km

Total Freight carried by Indian Railways: 1 Billion Tonnes

Freight Wagons:  254,000

Tallest Bridge Ghambir Khad bridge b/w Jammu Tawi and Udhampur is 77m tall.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites:

Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, a narrow gauge railway in West Bengal.

Nilgiri Mountain Railway, a metre gauge railway in the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu.

Kalka-Shimla Railway, a narrow gauge railway in the Shivalik mountains in Himachal Pradesh.

"In 2003 the railway was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for offering the steepest rise in altitude in the space of 96 kilometre"

Indian Railways carries 23,00,000 passengers daily and 8.4 billion a Year.

"That is approx equal to moving the Entire Population of Australia in a Day And the more than Population of the World Every Year"

Average rate Per Passenger-Km: 36.8 paisa

Indian Railways is Constructing the Highest Rail Bridge over Chenab, in J&K : 365 Mts

"Its about 5 times the height of Qutub Minar and About 35 metre Higher than the Eiffel Tower "

The longest Station Name : Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta

The Smallest Station Name : "IB" (Odisha) & "OD" (Gujrat)

The Longest Rail Tonnel in Country is 11.215 Km : PIR PANJAL TUNNEL

Located in Pir Panjal Range of Himalayas in Jammu and Kashmir. here is a three metre wide road along the length of the tunnel for the maintenance of railway tracks and emergency relief. It takes approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds for the train to cross the tunnel. 

Nagpur, located at the Central India, the DIAMOND CROSSING is one of its kind from where trains go East, West, North & South

Image source: here

Two stations at same location : Srirampur and Belapur are two different stations in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra which are both at the same location on the railway route but on opposite sides of the track. 

The railway station of Navapur is built in 2 states; one half of it is in Maharashtra and the other half is in Gujarat.

Busiest station : Lucknow, with 64 trains per day.

India has Eight Railway Museums – in Delhi, Pune, Kanpur, Mysore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ghum and Tiruchirappalli. Out of these, the National Railway Museum in Delhi is the largest rail museum in Asia.

Rail Museum : The National Rail Museum in Delhi set up in 1977 is a one of the unique museums in Asia. Sprawled over an area of 11 acres the museum has collections like antique steam engines, locomotives, models, carriages, photographs among other things. There are live exhibits as well as working and non-working models. The added attraction is the toy train which runs across the museum.

Indian Railways have Five Luxury Trains.

    Pic Source ; Road2travel

• Royal Rajasthan on Wheels,

• Palace on Wheels (Rajasthan),

• The Golden Chariot (Karnataka and Goa),

• The Maharajas’ Express (begins in Delhi but the itinerary differs) and

• The Deccan Odyssey (begins in Maharashtra but itinerary differs).

The Busiest junction in the country is Howrah junction in Kolkata with as many as 974 trains stopping there daily.

The Mascot of Indian Railways is BHOLU - The Guard Elephant.

    Pic Source: Here

13050/49 Howrah-Amritsar Express has 115 stops, the Record Maximum for an Express train.

The New Delhi Main Station, having the world's largest route Relay Interlocking System, has a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

The Howrah – Dhanbad Double Decker Express was a superfast train of Indian Railways, which was the First of its type to be introduced.

The Guwahati Thiruvananthapuram Express holds the record for being the most unreliable long-distance train on the Indian Railways network. 

It gets delayed by 10 - 12 hours, on an average.

The IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering & Tourism Corporation) website gets close to 12 lakh hits per minute!