History
The Inimitable Punjab Mail Marks a Century
ECONOMIC TIMES
Once the preferred service for British officials disembarking at Mumbai and travelling up-country, the Punjab Mail entered its 100th year this month.
It is the first train to achieve this distinction on Indian
Railways' broad gauge network and still connects west and north
India.Though the exact date of start of the Punjab Mail, running between
the then Bombay and Peshawar in today's Pakistan, is
unclear, Central Railway has calculated its "birth date" based on an old
document and a passenger complaint - about the train arriving a few
minutes late!
"From a cost estimate
paper of 1911 and a complaint by an irate passenger dated Oct 12, 1912,
about the late arrival of the train by a few minutes at Delhi station,
we have more or less inferred that the Punjab Mail, or Punjab Limited,
as she was then called, made her inaugural run from Ballard Pier Mole
Station, on June 1, 1912," a Central Railway official said.
This makes the Punjab Mail 16 years senior
to its more glamorous sister, the Frontier Mail, running on the Western
Railway network.
Although there
are other trains which have completed 100 or more years of service on
some metre or narrow gauge sections, the Punjab Mail record on the broad
gauge is based on available historical material, the officials said.
The 24-coach train, a mix of
air-conditioned and ordinary sleepers, traverses the entire 1,930 km
distance between Mumbai and its terminus, Ferozepur City in Punjab, near
the Pakistan border, in 34 hours.
Its regular passengers have remained loyal and appreciative.
"I have always found the journey by Punjab Mail fast,
efficient as far as timings are concerned and good service in terms of
lodging and boarding en route," said businessman J.S. Kahaan, 60, who
has frequently travelled on the train between Punjab and Mumbai.
The train used to be popular with the
British officers, along with their families, who usually disembarked at
Bombay after a two-week steamer voyage from Southampton.
"Since they held tickets combining the sea journey with an
inland train journey on the subcontinent to various destinations, the
officers and their families hopped on to one of the trains taking them
to places like Delhi, Calcutta or Madras," the
official said.
Running on some
fixed days of the week to carry mail and postal articles,
Punjab Limited was the fastest train in British-ruled
India for those travelling to northern India.
It traversed the picturesque 2,496- km-long Great Indian
Peninsular Railways route, dotted with hills, mountains, deserts, rivers
and forests, from Bombay to Peshawar in about 47 hrs, or almost two
full days.
Major stops en route
were Itarsi, Agra, Delhi and Amritsar as
well as Lahore (in present-day Pakistan) before it terminated at
Peshawar Cantonment.
"The train was
made up of six cars, three for the passengers with a total carrying
capacity of 96, and three for postal goods and mail. The sparkling clean
cars were all corridor cars, and made up of first class, dual berth
compartments," the official said.
June 7, 2011
Conversation about this article
1: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), June 11, 2011, 9:07 PM.
I was hoping someone would write about one of the finest railway networks in the world that connected all the four corners of India. Today, its number of employees exceed the population of Singapore. In remembering this achievement one cannot afford to remain oblivious to the immense contribution of Anglo-Indians and their legendary skill as locomotive drivers. He was like the captain of today's Airbus 380. As kids our prime dream was to become an engine driver. Nowadays the aspiration bar is raised and the kids now want to become astronauts or, at the very least, fly F-16 Fighters. The initial journeys were not without teething troubles when herds of elephants were often found resting on the railway lines. The breakdowns and consequent delays were often, and the time of arrival at the destination always remained vague. This Sardar ji and his Sardarni happened to be on this train. Sardar ji was getting impatient and kept asking the conductor when would it reach Amritsar. "Some time, I can't tell for sure," said the conductor, "just relax." "But I can't," said the Sardar ji, "my wife is pregnant and might deliver any time." "Then you should not have got on this train in this condition," said the conductor. "You don't understand, conductor janab ... she wasn't pregnant when we got on this train." I hope I catch this Punjab Mail that is 100 years old with this comment before it is timed out from sikhchic.com