Historical exhibition, guidebook to mark year-long Western Rly celebrations.
The Western Railway will celebrate 150 years of the rail line with a special steam train run, an historical exhibition and the release of an attractive guidebook for rail enthusiasts.
The first train, on what is today known as the Western Railway, operated on November 28, 1864, from Utran in Gujarat to Grant Road. Grant Road was the terminus till Churchgate was built seven years later.
The first train service in India was started between Bombay and Thane a decade earlier. “There was a railway already from Bombay to Thane. The new line reinforced the rail network and made it accessible to more people. It is something like the elevated corridor we are building today that will reinforce the network with new modes, like Mumbai Metro and Monorail,” said Sharat Chandrayan, chief spokesperson, Western Railway.
Some other programmes are yet being planned as part of the celebrations that will go on through the year.
The western line was called the Bombay Baroda and Central India Railway (BB&CI) which was set up in 1855. First, construction was started on a 29-mile broad gauge stretch from Utran to Ankleshwar. This was subsequently extended to Bombay by 1864, when the first service was operated.
According to WR archives, the original purpose of this rail service was to bring cotton from the interior of Gujarat to Bombay, from where it was shipped to England. The demand for cotton from India increased after supplies to British mills was affected due to the American Civil War.
In 1942, the management of the BB&CI Railway was taken over by the government and a few years after independence, some smaller railway lines were merged with it to form the Western Railway.
46 hours from Ahmedabad to Mumbai
The first timetable of the BB&CI Railway dates back to 1864, when a single steam engine train plied between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The journey took 46 hours. According to the timetable, the train would depart from Grant Road terminus at 7am and reach Ahmedabad at 5 am on the third day. On the return journey, the train left Ahmedabad also at 7am and reached Grant Road at 5.30am. The timetable was published in the daily newspaper from November 29, 1864 to December 6, 1864. The train which was originally started to transport cotton also had a few coaches for passengers.
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