The first railway on Indian sub-continent ran over a stretch of 21 miles from Bombay to Thane.

The idea of a railway to connect Bombay with Thane, Kalyan and with the Thal and Bhore Ghats inclines first occurred to Mr. George Clark, the Chief Engineer of the Bombay Government, during a visit to Bhandup in 1843.

The formal inauguration ceremony was performed on 16th April 1853, when 14 railway carriages carrying about 400 guests left Bori Bunder at 3.30 pm "amidst the loud applause of a vast multitude and to the salute of 21 guns."

The first passenger train steamed out of Howrah station destined for Hooghly, a distance of 24 miles, on 15th August, 1854. Thus the first section of the East Indian Railway was opened to public traffic, inaugurating the beginning of railway transport on the Eastern side of the sub-continent.

In south the first line was opened on Ist July, 1856 by the Madras Railway Company. It ran between Veyasarpandy and Walajah Road (Arcot), a distance of 63 miles. In the North a length of 119 miles of line was laid from Allahabad to Kanpur on 3rd March 1859. The first section from Hathras Road to Mathura Cantonment was opened to traffic on 19th October, 1875.

These were the small beginnings which is due course developed into a network of railway lines all over the country. By 1880 the Indian Railway system had a route mileage of about 9000 miles.

INDIAN RAILWAYS, the premier transport organisation of the country is the largest rail network in Asia and the world’s second largest under one management .

Estern Railway was formed on 14th April, 1952 by integration of the East Indian Railway consisting of Sealdah, Howrah, Asansol and Danapur Divisions and the entire Bengal – Nagpur Railway. Later, the portion of BNR stretching from Howrah to Visakhapatnam in the South, Howrah to Nagpur in the Central area and upto Katni in the North Central Region were seperated from Eastern Railway and formed as “South Eastern Railway” with effect from 1st August 1955. After redistribution and construction of new lines over a period of time, Eastern Railway as on 30th September 2002 was stretched over 4245.61 kilometres. On 01-10-2002, three divisions viz. Dhanbad, Mughalsarai and Danapur have been separated from Eastern Railway to create new East Central Railway zone with headquarters at Hazipur. Thus, Eastern Railway now consists of 2414 Route Kilometres spread over four divisions viz. Sealdah, Howrah, Asansol and Malda

1.2 The area served by Eastern Railway is important to the economy of the country, as apart from serving the most densely populated region in the country, this Railway serves the area rich in minerals, agriculture and industry.
1.3 This Railway has three major Workshops situated at Jamalpur for POH of wagons (4478 Vehicle Unit) and diesel locomotives (76 VU); manufacturing of wagons (77 nos./annum) and 140 ton cranes(5 nos./annum), tower-wagons and whiting jacks; Liluah for POH of coaching (2808 VU) & freight (1690 VU) vehicles and Kanchrapara - for POH of electric locomotives (74 nos./annum), EMU stock (912 VU) and coaching vehicles.
1.4 This Railway has 1308 route kilometres electrified on 25 KV AC traction out if a total of 2414 route kilometres.
1.5 Eastern Railway extends to Bangaladesh border in the East upto Lalgola, Benapole and Gede, Malda and Kiul in the North, Namkhana near Ganga Sagar in the South and Asansol and Jhajha in the West.
1.6 Starting from Howrah, the main line of Eastern Railway runs 221 kms. to Sitarampur from where it takes two directions towards Delhi, one via Patna and other via Dhanbad – Gaya. Both these lines converge again at Mughalsarai Station of E. C. Rly.
1.7 To serve the long distance passenger traffic, the Railway operates a large no. of fast long distance Mail/Express trains, the pride of place being occupied by Rajdhani Express, which was introduced for the first time on Indian Railways between Howrah and Delhi over Eastern and Northern Railways in 1969.
1.8 On the suburban front, Howrah and Sealdah divisions of Eastern Railway are catering to the needs of large portion of Greater Kolkata suburban passengers except those on the sections of South Eastern Railway system. Most of the suburban routes are electrified.
1.9 Eastern Railway has also been the pioneer in introducing Diesel Multiple Units service for the first time in the country. To meet the requirements of suburban passengers, this service was introduced in those sections which are not electrified.
1.10 On the electrified Routes Mainline Electrical Multiple Units have also been introduced for passenger services in Non-suburban areas. This service is widely appreciated by the commuters.
1.11 Eastern Railway has been one of the major Railways. Before creation of E C Rly., this Railway used to load about 80 Million Tonnes of freight every year which was about 19% of the total loading of Indian Railways. With bifurcation, the originating loading has now become about 44.5 Million Tonnes in 2007-2008.
1.12 At present, out of the total originating traffic of Eastern Railway, coal constitutes about 78%. Stone loading also forms a major constituent of freight traffic. The major Power Houses in eastern India (NTPC-2440 MW, CESC-975 MW, WBSEB-1590 MW, DVC-840 MW), two major Steel plants at Durgapur & Burnpur & three major cement plants are served by Eastern Railway1.13 Apart from the major commodities mentioned above, Eastern Railway also loads and carries Stone from Pakur and Jamalpur, Cement from Durgapur and host of other merchandise including Jute, Tea, Textile, Automobiles etc. at various stations.
1.14 The oil installations at Rajbandh and Budge-Budge, fertiliser plants at Durgapur and the huge industrial complexes at Asansol, Durgapur, Chittaranjan, Burnpur and industrial suburbs of Kolkata and Howrah are also served by this Railway.