The first train in Asia, and India ran between Mumbai and Thane on April 16, 1853. It was flagged off from Boribunder-the place where Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) presently stands

The Great Indian Peninsula Railway, which ran the first train, merged with the Indian Midland Railway Company in 1900 and extended its frontiers from Delhi in the North to Kanpur and Allahabad in the North-east and Nagpur in the East to Raichur in the South-east

On 5 November 1951, the Central Railway was formed by integrating Nizam State, Scindia State and Dholpur State Railways

Presently, Central Railway with its five divisions, namely Mumbai, Bhusaval, Nagpur, Solapur and Pune has a network over 4,275 route kilometres in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka

Running the first electric train service in India between Bombay VT (now CSMT) and Kurla Harbour on February 3, 1925 laid the foundation of Electrification of Railways and Mumbai suburban services, which today is the lifeline of Mumbai city

The suburban services which started from mere three coaches have gradually increased to 12 coaches and some services with 15 coaches. Air conditioned suburban services were also introduced to make travel more comfortable

Central Railway also has many of firsts in running express trains in India, some of then been: Shatabdi Express, Jan Shatabdi Express, Tejas Express among others

Central Railways serves the states on Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh through its 466 railway stations

Today, Central Railway has achieved 100 percent electrification and the suburban network has steadily increased

Apart from this, infrastructure works like construction of new railway lines, doubling, construction of bridges, construction of new stations among other services are being done at fast pace which includes the highest volume of 348 kilometres of multi-tracking work completed in this financial year, the statement by Central Railway added