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
