13 Facts About Indian Railways That You Probably Didn’t Know

Indian Railways is the world’s largest railway network of 115,000 km which roughly carries 23 million passengers on a daily basis. The total distance covered by it in a day is three and a half times that of the moon. However, there’s a lot more to know about it. Here you go-

1. Cash on Delivery

Five days prior to the commencement of your journey, you can book your tickets online and have them delivered at your place with an extra charge of Rs 40 for sleeper class and Rs 60 for AC ticket.

 

2. 4.63 Lakh average bookings per day

There is a 20% increase in the number of tickets and a 38% increase in the number of passengers.

 

3. For more than 5 decades, passengers had to wait to take nature’s call, until this gentleman,Okhil Chandra Sen wrote a letter to Indian Railways asking for toilets

 

4. Gorakhpur railway station in the Indian state of U.P. is the world’s longest railway station measuring 1,366m

 

5. Dibrugarh – Kanyakumari Vivek Express is the longest running train journey with the Indian Railways in terms of distance and time

4283 km crosses six states and takes 84.45 hours.

 

6. Guinness Book of World Records acknowledged New Delhi Railway station for having the world’s largest route interlocking system

 

7. Jaganath Shunkerseth and Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy were the ones who actually constructed the first railroads in India and not Britishers

 

8. Vashi Railway Station is built under a Commercial Park

It is built under and into the International Infotech Park, with ISO 9002 quality standards.

 

9. The resonance frequencies of the suspension are kept as close as possible to 72 bpm or 1.2 Hz.

Why? Because that’s the frequency with which human body is most accustomed to. Which is why most people find it quite easy to sleep in trains? It is one of the most fundamental frequencies of our bodies; our normal heart rate.

 

10. To safeguard equipments from being stolen, Indian Railways tweaked the voltage power from 230V to 110V (which is extremely low)

So even if someone steals it, they won’t be able to use it in their respective place until they lower the current.

 

11. The Pamban Bridge is India’s first cantilever bridge

 

12. The world’s highest railway bridge is being built over Chenab

 

13. And finally, here’s how you can change the name of a passenger on a reserved seat / confirmed reservation

We weren’t big, but we are getting bigger with time. There’re so many covert attributes to this beauty that has been running for more than a century. We’re putting in relentless efforts to make it one of the most powerful and strongest government run organisations in India.

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