Important Facts About Indian Railways

hello friends
now , I am writing some important facts about Indian Railways , because I always remained in
touch with it form 5 years old onwards . I have many relatives working at many impotant posts
in Indian railways.
Indian Railways, a historical legacy, are a vital force in our economy. The first railway on Indian sub-continent ran from Bombay to Thane on 16th April 1853. Fourteen railway carriages carried about 400 guests from Bombay to Thane covering a distance of 21 miles. Since then there has been no looking back. It is interesting to note that though the railways were introduced to facilitate the commercial interest of the British it played an important role in unifying the country.
Railways are ideally suited for long distance travel and movement of bulk commodities. Regarded better than road transport in terms of energy efficiency, land use, environment impact and safety it is always in forefront during national emergency.
Indian railways, the largest rail network in Asia and the world's second largest under one management are also credited with having a multi gauge and multi traction system.
The track kilometers in broad gauge (1676 mm) are 86, 526 kms, meter gauge (1000 mm) are 18, 529 kms and narrow gauge (762/610 mm) are 3,651 kms. Of the total route of 63,028 kms, 16,001 kms are electrified.
The railways have 7566 locomotives, 37, 840 coaching vehicles, 222, 147 freight wagons, 6853 stations, 300 yards, 2300 goodsheds, 700 repair shops, and 1.54 million work force. Indian Railways runs around 11,000 trains everyday, of which 7,000 are passenger trains.
now about its objectives in year 2008........................................................................
Indian Railways created a history by generating a cash surplus before dividend of Rs 20,000 cr as against Rs 14,700 cr in the previous year. The Passenger earnings have increased by 14 percent while coach earnings have shown a rise of 48 percent. A quantum jump in freight business is another highlight of the year. For the year 2007-2008 Construction of High Speed Passenger Corridors have been proposed. The corridors would have state of the art signaling and train control systems, for running high speed trains at speeds of 300 to 350 kms per hour; one each in the Northern, Western, Southern and Eastern regions of the country. The trains will cover distance distances of up to 600 kms in two to three hours. Private Public Partnership would be considered for High-speed corridors. Suggestions have been made to introduce air-conditioned class services in suburban trains in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata and escalators at major stations. The railway minister has proposed to use more IT services in the railways which would help in increasing passenger and freight earnings, reduce operating costs, ensure effective utilization of human and physical resources . Gauge Conversion, Rolling Stock Modernization and Capacity Augmentation are the other aspects in the to do list of the Indian Railways. The year 2007 will be celebrated as cleanliness year where efforts would be ensured to maintain cleanliness and hygiene at station premises in passenger trains, railway lines, waiting rooms etc.