Find all information about Southern Railway train zone

Southern Railway

The southern Railway zone lies at the bottommost tip of the mainland India with Chennai as its headquarters. It is one of the earliest railway zones which came into existence in the pre-independence era but was dedicated to the country in 1951.

It was originally created during the time of the British and was the Great Southern India Railway before its evolution. It was co-founded in Britain in 1853 and was fully developed in 1859. 

Speaking of its history, it was formed a union of 3 individual railway stations namely Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway, the South Indian Railway Company, and the Mysore State Railway.

Originally, at the time of its inception, the headquarters of the Southern railway was based in Tiruchirappalli. As of recent times, the Southern railway has emerged as the 4th largest railway zone in the country due to the expansion of its gauge conversion projects and the creation of new railway lines over a period of time. 

The Southern railway primarily spreads across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and little bits of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka towards the central portion of India. Within these states and the zone, the Southern railway comprises of 6 divisions that include Chennai, Madurai, Palakkad, Salem, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappalli.

The General Manager leads the Southern railway zone followed by the Additional General Manager who stands next in line. The trains that run in this zone majorly comprise of both passenger and goods trains. These include food grains, coal, and thermal power plant products that are being transported within and across states. The southern railway zone is statistically believed to have transported about 50 crore people so far.