Unique Facts About Railways of India

Besides being the largest connected transportation network in India, the railways here are also renowned for many more unique facts. The following post is an attempt to sum up such interesting facts involved in a rail tour of India.

1)      Fastest Train – The country’s fastest train, New Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi Express covers massive 704 km in connecting the capital of India New Delhi and Bhopal stretch in 7 hours 50 minutes. The all air-conditioned superfast train achieves its maximum speed of 150km/h on the Faridabad-Agra section. Shatabdi Express is a range of superfast train which operates in a course of single day and transports a passenger from one destination to another.

2)      Slowest Train – Coming on to the slowest train, how can we miss out the hill trains of India. The world heritage site under mountain railways of India, these toy trains take longer time span to cover the distance from plain to hill station. One such hill train, Metupalayam-Ooty Nilgiri Passenger Train is the slowest running train of Indian railways. Nilgiri Mountain Railway slowly runs at the pace of 10 km/hour and enroute offers majestic vistas around the hill station.

3)      Longest Route – Vivek Express from Dibrugarh (Assam) to Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu) is the longest rail route. Covering the distance of 4273 km, this train takes about 82 hours and 30 minutes to complete its journey. This train is the longest run in terms of total time and distance in Indian Railways.

4)      Longest Non-Stop Travel – Next, the longest non stop travelling train is Trivandrum-Hazrat Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express. The train connects Delhi to Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala. The longest stretch of travelling aboard this express train stretches non-stop over 528km stretch between Vadodara and Kota.

5)      Maximum Stops – The train Howrah – Amritsar Express train is known for the maximum number of stops. The express train owns the record for maximum number of stops with 115 halts during its journey.

6)      World's longest platform – India also has the world’s longest railway platform in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. The platform, spread over the area of 4,446.9  feet in length hosts three new platforms.

7)      Longest rail bridge - Vembanad Rail Bridge in Kerala is the longest rail bridge in India covering a stretch of 4.62 km. This is mainly used for freight transportation in the state.

8)      Longest tunnel – The country’s longest railway tunnel is Jammu and Kashmir’s Pir Panjal Tunnel. With the length of 11.215 km, the ambitious tunnel aims at connecting the region of Jammu with Kashmir.

These are few of the astonishing facts about rail tour of India that makes a railway journey even more fascinating. Know more about railways of India with a journey on a train.