page_title: Royapuram railway station
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Royapuram railway station / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Loco shed at Royapuram railway station, Chennai, taken on 21-Jun-2014 at 9:20 am
context_page_description: Royapuram railway station is a railway station at Royapuram, on the Chennai Beach–Katpadi section of the Chennai Suburban Railway network in Chennai, India. It is the second oldest railway station currently operational in India after Howrah Railway Station situated in Howrah, West Bengal and the first railway station of South India. The first train of South India started operating in June 1856 from Royapuram railway station. The station also remained the headquarters of the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway till 1922, when the headquarters was shifted to Egmore. Since the original structures of Bombay and Thane stations no longer exist, Royapuram station remains the oldest railway station in the entire subcontinent.
  Owing to lack of maintenance, Royapuram railway station building was degraded to a dilapidated condition over the decades. One end of the station, which was formerly used as a military platform, became a playground with most of the area covered with overgrown scrub vegetation. The other end of the station is being used for the transport of goods trains and the platform adjacent the main building is utilised for passenger trains.
context_section_description: Royapuram railway station is the place from where the laying down of the second railway line of the South Asia commenced in 1853. The idea of a railway in South India long predated any other railway lines in the Indian Subcontinent when a railway line for Madras was proposed in 1832. In the early 1840s, about 15 years after Stephenson's steam engine undertook that historic Stockton-Darlington journey with its passenger coach, laying of a railway line in South India was discussed in London. In 1845, the Madras Railway Company was formed and the plan was still under discussion. Four years later, the Great India Peninsula Company was formed in 1849, which built a 21-mile-long route from Bori Bunder (later the Victoria Terminus) in Bombay to Thane, becoming India's first railway line opened for traffic on 16 April 1853. With the Madras Railway Company reconstituting itself in 1849, the plans for a railway line in the south was revived further to the efforts by the mercantile community of Madras Presidency, which lobbied for rail connectivity. Work on the southern line began in 1853 and the railway line was extended from Royapuram (Madras) to Arcot, then titular capital of the Nawab of the Carnatic (the present day Walajapet, near Ranipet in Tamil Nadu). Royapuram was selected as the location for the new station as it was on the edge of a settlement of British traders and natives near Fort St. George. With the opening of the main terminus, the Royapuram station, on 28 June 1856 by the then Governor Lord Harris, the railway line was opened for traffic on 1 July 1856. On the inaugural day, two services—Royapuram to Ambur and Royapuram to Tiruvallur—were operated. The first train, manufactured by Simpson and Company, started its journey with the Governor and 300 European people from Royapuram to Walajapet and a stately dinner was arranged in Ambur. The second train carried Indian invitees to a shorter distance till "Triveloor" (the present day Thiruvallur). However, it is not known whether dinner was arranged for the people in the second train.
  On 6 September 1856, The Illustrated London News depicted the regal inauguration of the palatial railway station in Madras, in which the journal also described the second railway line in India:
  As the train proceeded across the arid plain of the Carnatic, it brought to view the counless number ... who thronged the route ... The train dashed by the masses of colours, here clustered by a bridge, there collected under the deep shade of a tope, crowded round a station house, or fringing the edges of a cutting, cheering loudly as the train flew by them. Now and then too, a hearty laugh broke forth when in passing some pasture ground, the lazy cattle, startled by the rushing shriek of the train, flew frantically away, sometimes followed by the scared herdsman himself, who, thinking that the fiery-fiend whom he saw approaching might crush him also, took to his heels with all his speed.
  According to the journal, Captain Barnett Fort described the rooms in the Royapuram station as being "very elegant and most superbly furnished with handsome punkahs & c." Governor Lord Harris, in his speech, congratulated the Madras Railway company, its manager Major Jenkins and all who had worked on the railway and said that the cost of £5,500 a mile was well worth the investment and looked forward to equally expeditious completion of the additional 450 miles of track to the west coast, a little south of Calicut.
  Since then, Royapuram was the only railway station in the city for about 17 years till Madras Central Station became functional in 1873. From 1873, trains towards the northern regions of the country were operated from Chennai Central and those towards the southern regions of the state were operated from Royapuram station.
  With the development of the Chennai Port, the cargoes from the port were transported via Royapuram station. This resulted in Egmore Railway Station becoming the terminus for southbound trains in 1907. On 9 August 1979, the lines at the station were electrified with the electrification o
caption: Loco shed at the Royapuram railway station
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