Deccan Queen still chugging at 83

Deccan Queen, the first-ever public transport of its kind that connected Mumbai (then called Bombay) and Pune in a three-and-a-half hour ride in the 1930s, has completed 82 years.
The Central Railway (CR) celebrated the electric train’s 83rd anniversary on Friday.

 “The introduction of Deccan Queen between the two premier cities on June 1, 1930, was a major landmark in the history of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR), now called the Central Railway.  This was the first deluxe train introduced on the railway to serve two important cities of the region and was aptly named after Pune, also called as Queen of Deccan,” said a senior CR official.

The history of Deccan Queen (Dakkhan ki Rani) is literally a tale of two cities.  Over the last 82 years, the train has grown from a mere medium of transportation between two cities into an institution binding generation of loyal passengers.

“I have been travelling by the Deccan Queen for the last 10 years. I live in Pune and work in Mumbai. This train is almost always on time. It reaches Mumbai by 10.30am, and departs from Mumbai at 5.10pm sharp,” said Hemant Tapale, a businessman.

“Initially, the train was introduced with two rakes of seven coaches each — one of painted in silver with scarlet mouldings and the other with royal blue with gold lines. The under frames of the coaches of the original rakes were built in England while the coach bodies were built in the Matunga Workshop of the GIPR,” the official said.

The number of coaches in the rake was also increased to 12 from the original seven coaches providing additional accommodation.  Over the year the number of coaches in the train has been increased to the present level of 17 coaches.