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The Western Railway (WR) is one amongst the most hustling rail networks in India. Along with headquarters of Central Railway, Mumbai enjoys the authority over this railway network too, being the headquarters sited at Churchgate (Mumbai). The Western Line of the Mumbai suburban railway system is also managed by the Western Railway. The entire zone is segregated into six divisions namely Bhavnagar, Mumbai, Ratlam, Rajkot, Vadodara and Ahmedabad.

As per the dates, Nov' 5 1951 was the golden day when the Western Railway came into being. It was formed by merging numerous state-owned railways together with the Bombay, Baroda & Central India Railway (BB&CI) and the Saurashtra, Rajputana & Jaipur Railways. In Apr' 1867, the first suburban service with steam traction was started in Mumbai. The network was extended till Churchgate by 1870. With 1900, 45 trains were employed in both directions to carry more than 1 million passengers every year.

In 1928, the first electric train on this segment was launched between Churchgate and Borivali. Ratlam - Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad - Vadodara and Palanpur - Ahmedabad are some of the main railway lines of Indian Railways that come under the jurisdiction of Western Railways. WR covers the state of Gujarat, the eastern segment of Rajasthan, a fraction of Western Madhya Pradesh and coast of Maharashtra. Western Railway serves number of ports on the west coast of India.

The prominent ports being Kandla, Okha, Porbandar, Bhavnagar (Gujarat) and Mumbai (Maharashtra), generate decent revenue to the Indian Railways. In Mumbai, the suburban section of the zone sprawls from Churchgate to Dahanu Road covering a distance of 120 kms, while connecting 38 stations. Another prominent fact about Western Railway is that it has the most electrified railroad system of the Indian Railways. Owing to this, Western Railway is the imperative railroad system in India.

History

The Western Railway was created on November 5, 1951 by the merger of several state-owned railways, including the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway (BB&CI), and the Saurashtra, Rajputana and Jaipur railways. The BB&CI Railway was itself inaugurated in 1855, starting with the construction of a 29 mile (47 km) broad gauge track from Ankleshwar to Utran in Gujarat state on the west coast. In 1864, the railway was extended to Mumbai.

Subsequently, the project was further extended beyond Vadodara in a north easterly direction towards Godhra, Ratlam, Nagda and thereafter northwards towards Mathura, to eventually link with the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, now the Central Railway, which had already started operating in Mumbai in 1853. In 1883, a metre gauge railway system, initially linking Delhi with Agra, Jaipur and Ajmer, was established.

The first suburban service in Mumbai with steam traction was introduced in April 1867. It was extended to Churchgate in 1870. By 1900 45 trains in each direction were carrying over one million passengers annually.

The railways of several princely states were also integrated into the Western Railway. The Gaekwars of Baroda built the Gaekwar's Baroda State Railway (GBSR), which was merged into the BB&CI in 1949. Several railways of western Gujarat, including the Bhavnagar, Kathiawar, Jamnagar & Dwarka, Gondal, and Morvi railways were merged into the Saurashtra Railway in 1948. The Jodhpur and Bikaner Railway was taken over by Rajasthan state in 1949, after the western portion was ceded to the government of Pakistan.

In 2002, the Jaipur and Ajmer divisions of the Western Railway became part of the newly-created North Western Railway, and in April 2003 the Kota division of the Western Railway became part of the newly-created West Central Railway.