Indian Railways

Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of the Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a total route length of , running track length of and track length of . of all the gauge routes are electrified with 25 kV 50 Hz AC electric traction . In 2020, Indian Railways carried 808.6 crore (8.086 billion) passengers and in 2022, Railways transported 1418.1 million tonnes of freight. It runs 13,169 passenger trains daily, on both long-distance and suburban routes, covering 7,325 stations across India. Mail or Express trains, the most common types of trains, run at an average speed of . Suburban EMUs run at an average speed of . Ordinary passenger trains (incl. mixed) run at an average speed of . The maximum speed of passenger trains varies, with the Vande Bharat Express running at a peak speed of . In the freight segment, IR runs 8,479 trains daily. The average speed of freight trains is around . The maximum speed of freight trains varies from depending on their axle load with 'container special' trains running at a peak speed of . Indian Railways' rolling stock consisted of 3,18,196 freight wagons, 84,863 passenger coaches and 13,215 locomotives. IR owns locomotive and coach-production facilities at several locations in India. It had 1.38 Million employees , making it the world's tenth-largest employer. The government has committed to electrifying India's entire rail network by 2023–24, and become a "net zero (carbon emissions) railway" by 2030. Rail transport in India#History The first railway proposals for India were made in Madras in 1832. India's first railway line was named Red Hill Railroad and was built by Arthur Cotton to transport granite for road-building. It ran from the Red Hills in Chennai to the Chintadripet bridge in Madras and was opened on 12 September 1837. This railway, the first on the Indian Subcontinent, was only used for freight transport.