Indian Railways and the Fastest Indian trains

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The remarkable system that the British East India Company had left in India is the “Railway system” for which all Indians have to give a great acknowledgement. Yes, though British East India Company had an intention to expand their business and had introduced the railway system for commercial and military purpose initially in 1940s (The first train in India was operational on December 22, 1851, used for the hauling of construction material in Roorkee), finally they started to operate passenger trains between Bori Bunder-Bombay-Thana(34 km-21 miles) on April 16,1853 that led to the birth of railways in
India.
Steam Engine
A total of forty-two separate railway systems, including thirty-two lines owned by the former Indian princely states existed at the time of independence spanning a total of 55,000 km. These were amalgamated into the Indian Railways. In 1951, the rail networks were abandoned in favour of zones. A total of six zones came into being in 1952. As India developed its economy, almost all railway production units started to be built indigenously. Broad Gauge became the standard, and the Railways began to electrify most lines to AC.

In 1985,the last of the steam locomotives were phased out but some tourist routes still run with steam engines. In 1987, computerisation of reservation first was carried out in Bombay and in 1989 the train numbers were standardised to four digits. In 1995 the entire railway reservation was computerised through the railway’s intranet. In 1998, the Konkan Railway was opened, spanning difficult terrain through the Western Ghats.
Shatabdi
At present, Indian Railways has one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world, transporting a staggering 20 million passengers a and moving more than 2 million tonnes of freight daily. It is one of the world’s largest commercial or utility employers, with more than 1.6 million employees. The railways traverse the length and breadth of the country, covering 6,909 stations over a total route length of more than 63,327 kilometres (39,350 mi).

The Fastest Indian Trains

The Shatabdis are among the fastest trains in India and the Indian Railways considers them a prestige and a symbol of success.The first Shatabdi train to be commence service was in 1988.The Shatabdi Express trains run over short to medium distances while the Rajdhani Expresses are long-distance trains connecting the nation’s capital New Delhi to capitals of states. Both series of trains have a regular speed of 100-130 km/h.
Rajdhani
The Bhopal Shatabdi Express is a West Central Railway train running between Bhopal Junction railway station of Bhopal City and New Delhi. This train runs at an average speed of 93 km/h (excluding halts), touching a top speed of 161 km/h on the 198 km Delhi-Agra stretch, which is the fastest for a train in India.The Shatabdi in certain circumstances, has advantages over the other trains when it comes to receiving priority and berthing and usually uses the best platforms at the stations .It generally stops at platform number 1 at most of the stations. The Rajdhanis and Shatabdis are the pride of India .Along with the scores of other trains , from passenger to Express Grand trunk trains, the Indian railways follows a legacy that none can match.

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