Mumbai The Punjab Mail, which runs between Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Firozpur, Punjab, on a 34-hour journey covering 1,940km, is the first train to achieve the distinction of completing 100 years on Indian Railway’s broad gauge network.
According to the Central Railway, its birth date has been calculated on old documents and a spokesman said that the origins of the once Bombay to Peshawar Punjab Mail remain unclear but it is believed that the train made her maiden run out of Ballard Pier Mole station in Mumbai on June 1, 1912. The P & O steamers would at that time bring in the mail and the officers of the Raj, along with their wives, on their first posting in colonial India. The steamer voyage between Southampton and Bombay lasted 13 days. As the British officials held combined tickets both for their voyage to Bombay as well as their inland journey by train to their place of posting, they would, after disembarking, simply board one of the trains bound for either Madras, Calcutta or Delhi.
Of the many trains, the most prestigious was the Punjab Mail or Punjab Limited as she was then called and used to run on fixed mail days from Bombay all the way to Peshawar via the Great Indian Peninsular route covering the 2,496km journey in about 47 hours.
The trains then comprised of six cars: three for passengers, and three for postal goods and mail. The three passengers carrying cars had capacity of 96 passengers. The sparkling cars were all corridor cars and were made up of first class, dual berth compartments, catering to the upper class gentry with even a compartment for luggage and the servants of the ‘white’ sahibs.
Through the years, the train started catering to other classes, too, and now there are several air-conditioned compartments with a restaurant car replaced by a pantry car.
