The oldest running long-distance train of the IndianRailways, Punjab Mail, connecting Mumbai-Firozpur - originally linking Bombaywith Peshawar (now in Pakistan) - turns 110 on Tuesday, Central Railwayofficials said here on Monday.
The Punjab Limited as she was called then, is a littleover 16 years older than its more glamorous counterpart Frontier Mail, thoughits origins are rather vague.
She steamed out of Bombay's Ballard Pier Mole station -which was the hub of the erstwhile Great Indian Peninsular Railways (GIPR),that later became the CR.
Based on a Cost Estimate paper of 1911 and a complaint byan irate passenger in Oct. 2012 about "the later arrival of the train by afew minutes at Delhi" station, the CR concluded that the Punjab Mail madeher maiden run on June 1, 1912.
To begin with, there were the P&O steamers bringingin the mail, and excited officers of the British Raj along with their spouses,coming to their first postings in colonial India after a 13-day long sea voyagefrom Southampton to Mumbai Port.
Since the British officials held a combined ticket bothfor the sea voyage to Bombay and then onward inland journey by train to theirplace of postings, after disembarking they would simply board one of the trainsfrom here bound for Delhi, Calcutta, or Madras.
The Punjab Limited used to run on fixed mail days fromBombay to Peshawar covering 2,496 kms in around 47 hours along the Great Indian peninsular route, via Itarsi, Agra, Delhi, and Lahore.
At that time, it had only 3 passenger cars with a total capacity of 96 travelers, three for postal goods and mail, and was the fastestrunning train in British India.
The passenger coaches were all corridor cars in firstclass, dual berth compartments, and well-appointed with lavatories, bathrooms,a restaurant car, a compartment for the luggage and servants of the Britishofficers.
Later, from 1914, the Punjab Limited started originatingand terminating at the Bombay VT Station, now Chhatrapati Shivaji MaharajTerminus Mumbai and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Today, the journey time of Punjab Mail, hauled byelectric engines has come down significantly, covering the 1,930 kms betweenMumbai CSMT-Ferozepur Cantt in 34 hrs 15 mins.
Compared to the original 6 cars of the Punjab Limited,Punjab Mail now has 9 air-conditioned coaches, 6 sleeper coaches, 5 generalsecond class coaches, a pantry, and a generator van.
By the mid-1930s, it also started catering to the Indians onthe move in Third class cars, it got the first air-conditioned coach in 1945,from May 1976, it was hauled by diesel engines, and by the 1980s with electricengines as a large part of the trunk routes on the IR network got electrified.
From December 2020, the Punjab Mail started its journeywith the German-designed Alstom LHB GmbH's Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coacheswhich give more safety and a pleasant travel experience to the passengers.