Claim: Train service to southern India made significant progress from 1856 to 1873.
Evidence: South India's first passenger train ran from Royapuram–Veyasarapady (Madras) to Wallajah Road in Arcot, a distance of 60 miles (97 km), on 1 July 1856. The Madras Railway's first workshop opened in Perambur (near Madras) that year, and the Bombay-Thane line was extended to Khopoli. In 1858, the Eastern Bengal Railway was incorporated. India's first tramway (a horse-drawn tramway) opened in Calcutta between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat Street, a distance of 3.8 kilometres (2.4 mi), on 24 February 1873. 
The first passenger train in South India ran from Royapuram and Veyasarapady (Madras) to Wallajah Road (Arcot) on 1 July 1856 on a 97-kilometre (60 mi) line built and operated by Madras Railway. On 24 February 1873 the first tramway, a 3.8-kilometre (2.4 mi) horse-drawn tramway, opened in Calcutta between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat Street. GIPR started its first workshops in Byculla in 1854 and Madras Railway set up their first workshop at Perambur in 1856. The railway boom continued with the incorporation of Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway (BB&CI) in 1855, Eastern Bengal Railway in 1858, and East Coast State Railway in 1890.