Northern Railway zone
|Dates of operation||April 14, 1952–|
|Headquarters||New Delhi railway station|
The Northern Railways is one of the 17 Railway zones of India and the northernmost zone of the Indian Railways. Its headquarter is New Delhi Baroda House near India Gate.
The railway zone was created on 14 April 1952 by merging Jodhpur Railway, Bikaner Railway, Eastern Punjab Railway and three divisions of the East Indian Railway north-west of Mughalsarai (Uttar Pradesh). It includes the first passenger railway line in North India, which opened from Allahabad and Kanpur on 3 March 1859. The Zonal Headquarters Office of Northern Railways is at Baroda House, New Delhi, and divisional headquarters are located at Ambala (Haryana), Delhi, Firozpur (Punjab), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) and Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh).
The first passenger railway line in North India opened from Allahabad to Kanpur on 3 March 1859. This was followed in 1889, by the Delhi–Ambala–Kalka line. Northern Railways previously consisted of eight divisional zones: Allahabad, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Delhi, Moradabad, Ferozpur, Ambala, and Lucknow, spanning most of North India. With the re-organisation of zones by the Indian Railways, Northern Railway zone came to its present form on 14 April 1952 and it now consists of five divisional zones.
On 19 February 1986, Northern Railways was the first zone to introduce the computerized passenger reservation system and was the first zone to do so. To facilitate the Unreserved travellers to also plan their journey ahead, Northern Railway introduced the Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) whereby the unreserved rail passenger can purchase an unreserved ticket 3 days in advance from the current booking counters.
The first diesel and electric locomotive simulators in India at the Tughlaqabad and Kanpur locomotive sheds were introduced by Northern Railways. These help upgrading the skills of the working and new drivers, providing them training for high speed train operation. All workshops, Diesel sheds and Air brake freight depts. are ISO 9000 certified. Diesel shed, Tughlaqabad has the distinction of being the first diesel shed to get ISO 14000 certification on Indian Railway.
There are eight workshops operated by Northern Railways
|Locomotive Workshop||Charbagh Railway Station, Lucknow||Uttar Pradesh|
|Carriage & Wagon Workshop||Alambagh, Lucknow||Uttar Pradesh|
|Carriage & Wagon Workshop||Yamunanagar-Jagadhari Railway Station, Yamunanagar||Haryana|
|Carriage & Wagon Workshop||Kalka||Haryana|
|Bridge Workshop||Jalandhar Cantonment||Punjab|
|Bridge Workshop||Lucknow||Uttar Pradesh|
|Signal & Telecom Workshop||Ghaziabad||Uttar Pradesh|
Zonal Railway Training Institute (ZRTI) at Chandausi, Moradabad UP is the oldest (and North India's only) Railway Training Institute, where group C railway employees like Driver, Guard, Ticket Checker, Station Master, Traffic Inspector, Commercial Inspector, JE (signal & Telecom) etc. are trained for initial, promotional and refresher courses. ZRTI is an ISO 9001 Institute. Applicants pass All India Railway Examinations to get admission into the institute. ZRTI is headed by a senior Civil Services Officer.
Northern Railways is one of nine old zones of Indian Railways and also the biggest in terms of network having 6807 kilometre route. It covers the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh and the Union territories of Delhi and Chandigarh.
Northern Railways implemented the Route Relay Interlocked system (RRI) at New Delhi Railway Station which is a modern signaling system for enhancing efficiency and safety in the operations. This Route Relay Interlocked system at New Delhi is one of the world's largest route relay interlocking system certified by the Guinness Book of Records. Northern Railway is equipped with 40 Route Relay Interlocking systems including the system at Delhi Main.
Delhi Suburban Railway services is a commuter rail service operated by Northern Railway. It covers the city state of Delhi, along with the adjoining districts of Faridabad,