Southern Railway (SR) is credited to be the first railway zone that
sought establishment in liberated India. On April 14th 1951,
Southern Railway was established by combining three state railways
including Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway, South Indian Railway
and Mysore State Railway. Initially, the Southern Railway was formed
in the British times, when Great Southern India Railway Co. was
initiated in Britain (1853). At the outset, Tiruchirappalli was
designated as its headquarters. However, it got registered as a
company in 1890 at
The capital city of Tamil Nadu, Chennai serves as the headquarters
of Southern Railway. The zone has been segregated into six divisions
namely Chennai, Madurai, Salem, Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram
(Trivandrum) and Tiruchirapalli. The Southern Railways encompasses
several states including Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Kerala as well as
little segments of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Over 500 million
passengers commute on the southern railway network annually. As a
matter of fact, this zone derives all its revenue from passengers
rather than freight, making it different from other zones of Indian
Railways
In 2005, Railway Board approved formation of new
Railway division to develop the railway infrastructure and for
better administration. Salem was held as the headquarters for the
new division. The creation of this division helped a lot to launch
better train services, hence rewarding the requests of railway
passengers. The places like Coimbatore and Tiruppur (highest revenue
yielder) are currently integrated in division of Salem. Salem is the
infant division of the Southern Railway that shaped out from
divisions of Palakkad and Tiruchirapalli.
Most of the
section of Southern Railway has Meter Gauge, which is a contrast to
maximum railways having Broad Gauge. Soon, various plans for
improvement would be charged to renovate all tracks to Broad Gauge,
develop stations, swathe platforms and superior catering stalls. An
automated signal system would also be installed to avoid accidents.
Chennai Central Station is known to serve 1 million passengers
daily. Advancement of stations including Chennai, Tiruchirapalli,
Madurai, Palghat and Thiruvanathapuram is under the process.
