CHENNAI: When Southern Railway marks its 75th year on April 14, its network today covers over 5,100 km across the south. Its evolution can be traced back to a single train that left Royapuram for Arcot in 1856.
Formed in 1951 through the merger of the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway, the South Indian Railway and the Mysore State Railway, the zone was part of a larger post-Independence effort to reorganise railways into administrative units.
But much of its footprint had already taken shape decades earlier. By the 1860s, lines had reached the west coast through Beypore (a Kerala port town) and Calicut (present-day Kozhikode).
In the following decades, Madras was linked to Bombay and later to Howrah, creating long-distance connectivity across the country. Rail access to ports such as Kochi and Thoothukudi further expanded the network's reach.
The zone has since been reshaped more than once, with parts carved out to form South Central Railway in 1966 and South Western Railway in 2003.
What remains today covers Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, with six divisions headquartered in Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchy, Salem, Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram.
Along the way, the network has retained some of its oldest and most recognisable structures, including Dr MGR Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore railway station, Royapuram railway station, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the recently commissioned vertical-lift Pamban bridge.
Operationally, the biggest changes came in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Metre-gauge lines were converted to broad gauge between 1990 and 2010, routes were doubled to handle higher traffic, and electrification expanded to cover more than 97 per cent of the network.
Currently, the Southern Railway has been focusing on capacity and passenger systems, including new train services, digital ticketing and real-time information, along with signalling upgrades and station redevelopment works.