Question

India’s first train ran in year____
a) 1857
b) 1854
c) 1852
d) 1864

Answer 1

Hint: Indian Railways is one of the world's largest rail networks, and its route network is spread over 1,23,236 kms, with 13,523 passenger trains and 9,146 freight trains from 7,349 stations, serving 23 million passengers and 3 million tonnes (MT) of freight per day.

Complete Answer:
- The first passenger train between Bori Bunder (Bombay) and Thane traveled a distance of 34 km on 16th April 1853. Three locomotives, called Sahib, Sultan and Sindh, worked and had thirteen carriages.
- In Madras in 1832, India's first railway plans were made. From Red Hills to Chintadripet Bridge in Madras in 1837, the Red Hill Railway, the country's first train, ran. It was hauled by a William Avery manufactured rotary steam-engine locomotive. The railway, designed by Arthur Cotton, was mainly used for the transport of laterite stone in Madras for road construction work. In 1845, at Dowleswaram in Rajahmundry, the Godavari Dam Construction Railway was built.
- Lord Dalhousie dedicated the country's first passenger train which on 16 April 1853, ran between Bombay's Bori Bunder station and Thane. The train, which traveled 34 kilometres (21 mi), carried 400 people. The Great Indian Peninsula Railway constructed and operated the passenger line (GIPR). It was built on a broad gauge of 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in), which became the railway standard of the country.

Hence, the correct answer is option b).

Note: The United States, followed by China and India, has the world's longest railway network. The French TGV holds the existing world speed record for a commercial train on steel wheels at 574.8 km/h, which was set on 3 April 2007 on the new LGV Est. Japan's Nagoya Station is the largest station in the world in terms of floor area, which according to some sources, is an amazing 446,000m2. It is the headquarters of the Railway Company of Central Japan, which has two towers that run above the station.