Southern Railways, headquartered in Chennai, was established on April 14, 1951. The establishment was mainly a merger of three state railways comprising Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway, South Indian Railway, and Mysore State Railway.
It is believed that Southern Railway is the first zone established in independent India. The zone has been divided into six divisions comprising Chennai, Madurai, Palghat, Tiruchchirapalli, Trivandrum, and Salem. Nearly about 500 million passengers commute annually on the southern railway network.
In 2005, Railway Board approved the establishment of a new Railway division to improve the railway infrastructure as well as administration in the southern region. Then Salem was announced as a new headquarter for the new division. This introduction proved to be beneficial to the Railways and helped to launch better train services. Renowned places like Coimbatore and Tiruppur are currently a major part of the new division of Salem that further forms an integral part of Southern Railways.
Major tracks of the Southern Railways are Meter Gauge and still improvements are being made to introduce some broad gauge tracks as well. This will further help to link the Southern Railways to other zones of the Indian Railways. The Southern zone is even making attempts to improve the condition of stations, develop superior catering stall, and automated signal system. Chennai Central Station is believed to carry more than one million passengers daily and other stations in the zone including Tiruchirapalli, Madurai, and Thiruvanathapuram are under the process of advancement.
To learn more about Southern Railways visit the official website on http://www.southernrailway.org/