History
The station started with a broad gauge train from Calcutta in 1864. Metre gauge track from Delhi to Rewari and further to Ajmer was laid in 1873 by Rajputana Railways and metre gauge trains from this station started in 1876.
The present building of the station was built in 1900 and opened for public in 1903. Started with just 2 platforms and 1000 passengers, Delhi Railway Station now handles more than 180,000 passengers and 200 trains daily.
In 1904 the Agra-Delhi line was opened. Delhi then was a part of six railway systems. East Indian Railway, North-Western Railway, and Oudh and Rohilkhand Railways entered from Ghaziabad junction, crossing the Yamuna river. Delhi-Ambala-Kalka Railway ran northwards from Delhi, and the Rajputana-Malwa Railway traversed the Delhi district for a short distance in the direction of Gurgaon and Rewari junction.
Delhi Railway Station was built in red stone to give the effect of nearby historic Red Fort. The station building had six clock towers and tower 4 is still in use as a water tank.
This station served as the main station of Delhi, hosting junction of four railways until the opening of New Delhi Railway Station in 1926 ahead of the inauguration of the New Delhi city in 1931. Agra-Delhi railway track cut through the site earmarked for the hexagonal War Memorial (now called India Gate) and Kingsway (now called Rajpath). East Indian Railway Company shifted the line along the Yamuna river and opened the new track in 1924.
The station was remodelled in 1934–35, when its platforms were extended and power signals were introduced. A new entrance from Kashmere Gate side was created in 1990s and new platforms were added. The platforms were renumbered in September 2011. The numbers that started from Kashmere Gate entrance as 1A and ended at 18 near the main entrance were renumbred starting as 1 from the main entrance and ending at 16 at Kashmere Gate entrance and some platforms were merged to form long platforms to accommodate trains of 24 coaches. The station building is being renovated in 2012-13.
Read more about this topic: Delhi Junction Railway Station
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—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)
“It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)