Western Indian Railway

The Western Railway (WR) is one amongst the most hustling rail networks in India. Along with headquarters of Central Railway, Mumbai enjoys the authority over this railway network too, being the headquarters sited at Churchgate (Mumbai). The Western Line of the Mumbai suburban railway system is also managed by the Western Railway. The entire zone is segregated into six divisions namely Bhavnagar, Mumbai, Ratlam, Rajkot, Vadodara and Ahmedabad.

As per the dates, Nov' 5 1951 was the golden day when the Western Railway came into being. It was formed by merging numerous state-owned railways together with the Bombay, Baroda & Central India Railway (BB&CI) and the Saurashtra, Rajputana & Jaipur Railways. In Apr' 1867, the first suburban service with steam traction was started in Mumbai. The network was extended till Churchgate by 1870. With 1900, 45 trains were employed in both directions to carry more than 1 million passengers every year.

In 1928, the first electric train on this segment was launched between Churchgate and Borivali. Ratlam - Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad - Vadodara and Palanpur - Ahmedabad are some of the main railway lines of Indian Railways that come under the jurisdiction of Western Railways. WR covers the state of Gujarat, the eastern segment of Rajasthan, a fraction of Western Madhya Pradesh and coast of Maharashtra. Western Railway serves number of ports on the west coast of India.

The prominent ports being Kandla, Okha, Porbandar, Bhavnagar (Gujarat) and Mumbai (Maharashtra), generate decent revenue to the Indian Railways. In Mumbai, the suburban section of the zone sprawls from Churchgate to Dahanu Road covering a distance of 120 kms, while connecting 38 stations. Another prominent fact about Western Railway is that it has the most electrified railroad system of the Indian Railways. Owing to this, Western Railway is the imperative railroad system in India.