Mathura Junction railway station

Mathura Junction railway station (station code: MTJ ) is an important station on the Agra–Delhi chord of the Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Chennai lines. It is located in Mathura district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is one of the important North-Central Railway stations. It serves Mathura and Vrindavan.

Overview
Mathura is the birthplace of Lord Krishna. He spent his childhood in Vrindavan, 11 km away from Mathura. Therefore, both are major pilgrimage centres for Hindus. Mathura Refinery of the Indian Oil Corporation which is one of the largest oil refineries in India, is located in Mathura.

History
The 29 mi-long Hath Road–Mathura Cantt line was opened in 1875 by Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway. It was transferred to the North Eastern Railway in 1952. The Mathura–Kasganj line was converted from -wide metre gauge to broad gauge in 2009.

The 7 mi-long metre-gauge Mathura–Vrindavan branch line was opened by Bombay, Baroda and Central Indian Railway in 1889.

Station
Mathura Junction has 10 platforms. There is a junction for southbound and westbound trains. It has connectivity with all major cities in India. There are seven routes / lines from this railway junction station. Platform 10 is dedicated to Vrindavan metre-gauge trains(currently not operating as gauge conversions). As per the 2018 report released by the Quality Council of India (QCI), station was declared the least clean station among the 75 major stations.

Electrification
The Faridabad–Mathura–Agra section was electrified in 1982–85. The Mathura–Bharatpur–Gangapur city line was electrified in 1985–86.

Amenities
Mathura Junction railway station has a tourist information centre, telephone booths, computerised reservation centre, waiting room, vegetarian and non-vegetarian refreshment rooms, and a book stall. Indian Railways, as part of its station redevelopment initiative, successfully renovated Mathura's Railway station making it more convenient for passengers visiting the city by Railways. The station has new entry and exit gates, and the first-class waiting room for passengers has been revamped by providing new benches. The circulation area of the station has been modified.

Passengers
Mathura Junction is among the top hundred booking stations of Indian Railway. The junction is important as from here the routes of trains coming from Delhi are bifurcated towards Mumbai and the South Indian cities of Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.

Train accident
On September 28, 2023, a MEMU Train collided with a buffer on Platform 2A. The cause of the accident was that train was under maintainace and train lighting staff who was drunk and busy in his mobile on a video call operated the train at full speed, 1 person was injured.