Central Indian Railway

The Central Railway (CR) is perhaps the oldest railway zone of Indian Railways. This is one amongst the largest of the sixteen zones bifurcated by Indian Railways. Central Railway also boasts of the first passenger railway line in India that connected Bombay with Thane. Central Railway has its headquarters at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (before Victoria Terminus) in Mumbai. Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur, Solapur and Bhusawal are some of the major cities that fall under the Central Railway zone.

CR covers the major part of Maharashtra, north-east part of Karnataka and southern part of Madhya Pradesh. The Central Railway zone is further structured into five divisions namely Mumbai CST, Bhusawal, Nagpur, Solapur and Pune. On Nov' 5 1951, Central Railway was established by consolidating numerous government owned railways, together with the Great Indian Peninsula Railway and the Scindia State Railway. Earlier, Central Railway Zone also featured northern Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and southern part of Uttar Pradesh.

Owing to its wide area coverage, CR was the largest railway zone having maximum track mileage and staff. However, these areas were allocated to the West Central Railway zone in April 2003 for better administration. Central Railway Zone is also notable for its Matheran Line, which connects Neral with the hill station of Matheran in the Western Ghats, on the Mumbai-Pune main line. Deccan Queen, Gitanjali Express, Punjab Mail, Hussain Sagar Express and Pushpak Express are some of the distinguished trains that run under the management of the Central Railway.

Eastern Indian Railway

The Eastern Railway is one of the major zones of Indian Railways. Fairley Place in Kolkata being its headquarters, the Eastern zone is segregated into four divisions including Howrah, Malda, Sealdah, and Asansol for better administration. On 14 April 1952, the Eastern Railways was created by merging the East Indian Railway encompassing divisions of Sealdah, Howrah, Asansol and Danapur with Bengal - Nagpur Railway.

At present, Eastern Railway encompasses 2382.38 kilometers of route. For the economy of the country, the region attended by the Eastern Railway is really significant. Besides ministering the most populated expanse of the country, Eastern Railway deals with the area that is prosperous in industry, agriculture and minerals. The three major workshops of Eastern Railway are located in Jamalpur, Liluah and Kanchrapara.

Eastern Railway elongates to the Bangladesh border in the East, whereas Lalgola, Malda and Kiul in the North, Kakdwip near Ganga Sagar in the South and Asansol and Jhajha in the West. In order to accommodate long distance passenger rush, the Railway runs a large number of high-speed long distance trains. Rajdhani Express, being the premium one, ran for the first time (1969) on the tracks of ER and NR between Howrah and Delhi.

Eastern Railway is also known for making most of its suburban routes electrified, yet the routes that have not been electrified, are getting served by Diesel Multiple Units. The overall originating traffic of Eastern Railway comprises 86 percent of coal. In Eastern India, the major Power Houses and Industries rely upon the coal encumbered on the Eastern Railway. Not only this, Eastern Railway also transfers Iron, Steel, Stone, Cement, Jute, Tea, Textile, Automobiles etc.

Northern Indian Railway

The Northern Railway (NR) is one amongst the nine older zones of Indian Railways. Delhi, the capital city of India, serves as the headquarters of Northern Railway. The whole zone is divided into five divisions namely Delhi, Ferozpur, Ambala, Lucknow and Moradabad for smooth administration. Northern Railway is also acknowledged to have the largest route kilometers of track (6807 km) under its control consistently yet after the streamlining of the railways into the new structure of zones.

On 14 April 1952, Northern Indian Railway came into being after amalgamation of Jodhpur Railway, Bikaner Railway, Eastern Punjab Railway, north-west of Mughalsarai and three divisions of the East Indian Railway. Northern Railway embraces states of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Chandigarh (Union Territory) in India. Not only this, NR is also known for operating world's largest route relay interlocking (RRI) at Delhi.