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Rail transport is commonly used mode of long-distance Transport in India. Almost all rail operations in India are handled by Indian Railways, a state-owned organization of the Ministry of Railways. The rail network traverses the length and breadth of the country, covering in 2011 a total length of . It is the 4th largest railway network in the world,〔(【引用サイトリンク】 CIA — The World Factbook – Country Comparison :: Railways )〕 transporting 7.651 billion passengers and over 921 million tonnes of freight annually, as of 2011.〔 Its operations cover twenty eight states and three union territories and also provides limited service to Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Both passenger and freight traffic has seen steady growth, and as per the 2009 Railway budget presented by the Railway Minister, the Indian Railways carried over 7 billion passengers in 2009. Railways were introduced to India in 1853 from Mumbai to Thane, and by the time of India's independence in 1947 they had grown to forty-two rail systems. In 1951 the systems were nationalised as one unit—Indian Railways—to form one of the largest networks in the world. The broad gauge is the majority and original standard gauge in India; more recent networks of metre and narrow gauge are being replaced by broad gauge under Project Unigauge. The steam locomotives have been replaced over the years with diesel and electric locomotives. Locomotives manufactured at several places in India are assigned codes identifying their gauge, kind of power and type of operation. Colour signal lights are used as signals, but in some remote areas of operation, the older semaphores and disc-based signalling are still in use. Accommodation classes range from general through first class AC. Trains have been classified according to speed and area of operation. All trains are officially identified by a five-digit code (changed from four digits on 20 December 2010) though many are commonly known by unique names. The ticketing system has been computerised to a large extent, and there are reserved as well as unreserved categories of tickets. ==History== (詳細はChennai) in Madras Presidency in 1836 as an experimental line. In 1837, a long rail line was established between Red Hills and stone quarries near St. Thomas Mount. In 1844, the Governor-General of India Lord Hardinge allowed private entrepreneurs to set up a rail system in India. The East India Company (and later the British Government) encouraged new railway companies backed by private investors under a scheme that would provide land and guarantee an annual return of up to five percent during the initial years of operation. The companies were to build and operate the lines under a 99-year lease, with the government having the option to buy them earlier. Two new railway companies, Great Indian Peninsular Railway (GIPR) and East Indian Railway (EIR), were created in 1853–54 to construct and operate two 'experimental' lines near Mumbai and Kolkata respectively.〔 The first train in India had become operational on 22 December 1851 for localised hauling of canal construction material in Roorkee. A year and a half later, on 16 April 1853, the first passenger train service was inaugurated between Bori Bunder in Mumbai and Thane. Covering a distance of , it was hauled by three locomotives, ''Sahib'', ''Sindh'', and ''Sultan''. This was soon followed by opening of the first passenger railway line in North India between Allahabad and Kanpur on 3 March 1859. In 1854 Lord Dalhousie, the then Governor-General of India, formulated a plan to construct a network of trunk lines connecting the principal regions of India. Encouraged by the government guarantees, investment flowed in and a series of new rail companies were established, leading to rapid expansion of the rail system in India. Soon various native states built their own rail systems and the network spread to the regions that became the modern-day states of Assam, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. The route mileage of this network increased from in 1860 to in 1880 – mostly radiating inland from the three major port cities of Mumbai, Madras, and Calcutta. Most of the railway construction was done by Indian companies. The railway line from Lahore to Delhi was done B.S.D. Bedi and Sons (Baba Shib Dayal Bedi), this included the building of the Jamuna Bridge. By 1895, India had started building its own locomotives, and in 1896 sent engineers and locomotives to help build the Uganda Railway. At the beginning of the twentieth century India had a multitude of rail services with diverse ownership and management, operating on broad, metre and narrow gauge networks.〔 In 1900 the government took over the GIPR network, while the company continued to manage it. With the arrival of the First World War, the railways were used to transport troops and foodgrains to the port city of Mumbai and Karachi en route to UK, Mesopotamia, East Africa etc. By the end of the First World War, the railways had suffered immensely and were in a poor state. In 1923, both GIPR and EIR were nationalised with the state assuming both ownership and management control. The Second World War severely crippled the railways as rolling stock was diverted to the Middle East, and the railway workshops were converted into munitions workshops. After independence in 1947, forty-two separate railway systems, including thirty-two lines owned by the former Indian princely states, were amalgamated to form a single unit named the ''Indian Railways''. The existing rail networks were abandoned in favour of zones in 1951 and a total of six zones came into being in 1952.〔 As the economy of India improved, almost all railway production units were 'indigenised' (produced in India). By 1985, steam locomotives were phased out in favour of diesel and electric locomotives. The entire railway reservation system was streamlined with computerisation between 1987 and 1995. In 2003, the Indian Railways celebrated 150 years of its existence. Various zones of the railways celebrated the event by running heritage trains on routes similar to the ones on which the first trains in the zones ran. The Ministry of Railways commemorated the event by launching a special logo celebrating the completion of 150 years of service.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Celebrating 150 years )〕 Also launched was a new mascot for the 150th year celebrations, named "Bholu the guard elephant". On 16 April 2013, Google celebrated 160 years of India first passenger train journey by google doodles.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Google doodles India's first passenger train )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Google doodle memorize 160th anniversary of Indian Trains )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rail transport in India」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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