The Great Indian Peninsular (GIP) Railway, came into existence on April 16, 1853, when the first train on the Indian Sub-continent steamed off from Mumbai to Thane, a modest stretch of only 33 Kms. Central Railway was carved out of erstwhile GIP Railway on November 5, 1951.
Central Railway covers a large part of the state of Maharashtra and parts of North-Eastern Karnataka and Southern Madhya Pradesh. It is a system with a network of 3905.47 route kilometres and 5975.33 track kilometres linking 477 stations in five divisions i.e Mumbai, Pune, Bhusawal, Nagpur and Solapur .
Central Railway is the leading passenger carrying system. It carries more than 4 lakh passengers every day to each nook and corner of the country through Mail/Express/Passenger trains. Mumbai Suburban Train System is the life line of the Metropolitan City.
Central Railway is also distinguished for its Neral - Matheran Line (Narrow Gauge line), which links Neral with the enthralling hill station of Matheran in the Western Ghats, on the Mumbai-Pune main line. Deccan Queen, Punjab Mail, Gitanjali Express, Hussain Sagar Express and Pushpak Express are the few prestigious trains run by Central Railway.
The unique section of Central railway is the Mumbai-Suburban-
Central Railway operates one of the largest suburban network in the world, serving 81 stations carrying 3.48 million commuters (approx.) every day on 1810 trains in Mumbai. It is often called the lifeline of Mumbai Metropolis.
The Mumbai Suburban System of Central Railway extends from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus to Kalyan (53.21 Kms), where it bifurcates into 2 directions, one to Kasara (120.56 Kms) and the other to Khopoli (114.24 Kms).
The section between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Kalyan is with quadruple lines, two for up and down slow suburban services and two for up and down fast suburban services, mail, express and freight trains. The section between VVR & Kalyan has six lines (2 additional lines). These new lines are presently being used for freight traffic. The section beyond Kalyan is double line.
The Harbour Line corridor of the Central Railway extends from ChhatrapatiShivaji Terminus to Vadala, where it bifurcates into two directions one joining the Western Railway at Mahim (12.47 kms) and line uptogoregaon (26.37 kms) the other going to Kurla and beyond to New Mumbai, terminating at Panvel (48.94Kms).
The Thane-Turbhe-Vashi, double line section (18.6 kms) was commissioned on 9th November, 2004. On 9th January, 2009, the line between Turbhe and Nerul was inaugurated and now 262 services are running on Thane-Vashi-Nerul/Panvel section.
2. Salient Features
Total Route Kms (RKM)
4151.93
Passenger trains/day (Non-Suburban)
509
No. of passengers per day approximately (Non-Suburban)
4 lac
Passenger trains/day ( Suburban)
1810
No of passengers per day approximately ( Suburban)
