The ticket fare of first passenger train in India was Rs…, it ran between…

India's first passenger train started operation on April 16, 1853, between Bori Bunder (now Mumbai) and Thane and covered the distance of 34 kilometres and it was operated by Great Indian Peninsula Railway.

Railways form the backbone of Indian transport and modernisation of Indian Railways is crucial for achieving the vision of Viksit Bharat. Earlier in the year, Indian Railways achieved a significant milestone by upgrading over 23,000 track kilometers (TKM) of the Indian Railways network to support train speeds of up to 130 kilometres per hour (kmph). But do you what was ticket fare of first passenger train which was started in 1853 which plied between Bombay and Thane? Let’s find out

India’s first passenger train started operation on April 16, 1853, between Bori Bunder (now Mumbai) and Thane and covered the distance of 34 kilometres and it was operated by Great Indian Peninsula Railway. The first passenger train in India had ticket fares standardised at 30 paise, 16 paise, 9 paise, and 5 paise per mile for first class, second class, Interclass , and third class, respectively. The first passenger train in India started operation between Mumbai and Thane and later had ticket fare of Rs 1 for a second class ticket and Rs 2 for a first class ticket.

Last year in February, the Indian Railways announced a significant reduction in passenger train ticket prices to get them back to pre-COVID levels. From February 27, 2024, the Indian Railways reinstated Second Class Ordinary Fares on ‘Passenger Trains,’ now designated as ‘Express Specials’ or ‘MEMU/DEMU Express’ Trains.

After the COVID outbreak and subsequent lockdown, Indian Railways had discontinued passenger trains and increased the minimum ticket price from Rs 10 to Rs 30, aligning it with Express Train fares.

According to the Economic Survey 2024-25, 17 new pairs of Vande Bharat trains were introduced to the network, and 228 coaches were produced between April and October 2024. Other than this, 91 Gati Shakti multi-modal Cargo Terminal have been commissioned and 17 projects for the value of ₹16,434 crore has been completed under the PPP model.

As India aims to be Net Zero by 2070, the Indian railways is also doing its bit and has already commissioned 375 MW of solar and 103 MW of wind energy as of October 2024. The aim is to achieve 30 GW of renewable energy by 2029-30.