User:Arun Dhiman

List of Oldest Running Trains in India

1. First Train Of India - Between Bombay To Thane on 16 April 1853

2. Mumbai-Poona Mail /Poona Mail - Started in 1869. Mumbai-Pune Mail (started as Bombay-Poona Mail) or Poona Mail was a luxurious train on Mumbai-Pune section by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. It was the first intercity train started between Mumbai and Pune. This train and the famous Deccan Queen Express used to serve Mumbai Pune commuters for many years. Later this train was extended to Kolhapur and was renamed as today's Sahyadri Express. This train was believed to carry Royal Mail and was one of the finest trains in British Empire. During the year 1907 the train was operated with seven coaches with a total weight of 240 t. Seats for 50 first, 95 second and 320 third class passengers were provided. The restaurant car had another 32 seats. The train crew of 8 man included guard, conductor, car attendant, refreshment manager and waiters. The livery of the train was dark red-brown on the lower part and cream for the upper part. Each car was 62 ft (19 m) long and 10 ft (3 m) wide. The chairs could be turned around in order that the passengers were always looking in the travel direction. The cars had electric lighting powered by axle driven generators. 3rd class passengers did not have reserved seats. Punkah fans were provided only in 1st and 2nd class. The cars were fitted with vacuum brake and passenger alarm signal.

3. Kalka Mail (Howrah-Kalka) - Run by the East Indian Railway Company, the train (originally numbered 1 Up / 2 Dn) began operation between Calcutta and Delhi in 1866 as the "East Indian Railway Mail". Its run was extended from Delhi to Kalka in 1891. The train was the principal mechanism by which British civil servants moved to their summer capital in Simla from Calcutta with the entire government machinery traveling on the train at the start of the summer months and returning by it at the end of summer. Both stations, Howrah as well as Kalka, had internal carriageways running along the platform so that the Viceroy and other high-ranking officers could drive right up to their rail coaches. The carriageway at Howrah is still used and runs between Platforms 8 and 9 but the carriageway at Kalka has been converted into platform.With the rationalization of train numbering in the 1990s, the Kalka Mail lost its 1 Up /2 Dn numbering and is now the 12311 from Howrah and the 12312 from Kalka.

4. Chennai-Howrah Mail - The train made its inaugural run on 15 August 1900, which makes it one of the oldest running trains on Indian Railways. It rightly deserves to be categorised as one of the classic trains of India, having run and served the country on this route from very early days of Indian Railways through all its stages of development(over 112 years),first hauled by steam engines, including the WP class engines, then by diesel, and now by electric WAP-4 locomotives. It was the first passenger train to be dieselised on South Eastern Railway, in 1964-65. Till the introduction of the Coromandal Express in the mid seventies, it was the main and fastest train link between Howrah and Chennai (then Madras) with much less number of halts.

5. Punjab Mail - This is the oldest running train in India since 1912 (105 years old).The inaugural run of the Punjab Mail is thought to have taken place on 1 June 1912. Then known as The Punjab Limited, the train initially ran from Ballard Pier to Peshawar, taking British officers, civil servants, and their families directly from their ships to Delhi and the North-West frontier of British India. In 1914, the originating station was moved to Victoria Terminus, and after the partition of India in 1947, the train's terminus was brought back to Firozpur on the India-Pakistan border.

6. Golden Temple Mail - The train ran as the Frontier Mail between 1928 and 1996, ferrying passengers arriving by Steamer from Europe directly from Ballard Pier in Bombay to the city of Peshawar on India's North-West Frontier before the Partition of India.Today it operates as train number 12903 from Mumbai Central to Amritsar Junction and as train number 12904 in the reverse direction. The Frontier Mail (now Golden temple mail) was the first air conditioned train in the Indian Peninsula, when it got an air-conditioned compartment in 1934. Even radio facility was provided for the first time in the Golden Temple Mail.

7. Grand Trunk (GT) Express - Introduced by Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway, with its headquarters in erstwhile Madras (now Chennai) in 1929, to run between Peshawar, then part of British India and capital of North West Frontier province in present-day Pakistan and Mangalore, then part of Madras province, almost the entire length of the country and beyond. The historic route passed through New Delhi and Madras, (now Chennai). Later sometime the route got shortened and ran between Lahore(now in Pakistan) and Mettupalayam, near Coimbatore, connecting Ooty and Coonoor, thus making the GT Express probably one of the longest running trains in the country at that time. The Peshawar to Mangalore run took about 104 hrs in all, later the end points were changed and to this day it provides a daily service between New Delhi, the capital of India, and the capital of Tamil Nadu, Chennai. It covers the distance of 2,186 kilometres.

8.Deccan Queen Express - Deccan Queen was started on 1 June 1930 as a weekend train for the British people in India during the days of British India, to ferry race-fans from Bombay (now Mumbai) to Poona (now Pune). The first service of the train was conducted from Calyan (now Kalyan) and Pune. It was converted to a daily service soon after, starting from Bombay Victoria Terminus (renamed Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus CSTM). It is one of the longest running trains on the Indian Railways to have never run on steam power. From the beginning, the Deccan Queen has been run using electric locomotives. Occasionally, it was given diesel locomotives in case of original locomotive failure. The color of its rake has seen a lot of changes, from red colour to yellow and then to blue.The Deccan Queen has several firsts or 'among the firsts' to her credit: she was India's first superfast train, she was the first long distance electric hauled passenger train, she was one of India's first vestibuled trains. The Deccan Queen was the first to have a Ladies Only car, and amongst the first to feature a diner. The train has an exciting and chequered history. The Deccan Queen got a brand new rake in 1966, consisting of Indian Railways standard integral anti telescopic cars. For the first time since the history of the train, third class (now second class) passengers were allowed to travel by this train. It had only reserved first class since inception until 1966.

9. Delhi Mail / Haridwar Mail & Ferozpur Janta Express - Both started In year 1956

10. Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani - This train was country's first Rajdhani started on 3rd March 1969.

11. Swaraj Express (Bandra-Katra) - This famous Superfast train was started on 24 Dec 1976. Also Kerala Express was started in same year.