Rail
The first railway station in Madras city was opened at Royapuram in 1853. The first to be constructed in South India, the Royapuram station served as the headquarters of the Madras Railway Company. On July 1, 1856, the first railway service in South India was commenced between Madras and Arcot. Madras Central was opened in 1873 followed by the Egmore Railway Station in 1908. Egmore served as the headquarters of the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway from 1908 to 1951 while Central served as the headquarters of the South Indian Railway Company from 1927 to 1951. Both the companies were liquidated when India's railway network was nationalised in the 1950s. Chennai Central is currently the headquarters of the Southern Railway Zone of the Indian Railways.
Chennai's first suburban electric train service was inaugurated between Chennai Beach and Tambaram on April 2, 1931. The Chennai suburban railway system currently has 6 lines with a total system length of about 896.5 km (557 mi) (non redundant track length) of which 286 km (178 mi) are true suburban and 610.5 km (379 mi) MEMU service].
- North Line: Chennai Central MMC — Ennore — Gummidipoondi — Sullurpeta
- South Line: Chennai Beach — Tambaram — Chengalpattu
- South West Line: Chennai Beach — Tambaram — Chengalpattu
- West Line: Chennai Central MMC — Tiruvallur — Arakkonam
- West North Line: Chennai Central MMC — Tiruvallur — Arakkonam — Tiruttani
- West South Line: Chennai Beach — Royapuram — Washermanpet — Perambur — Arakkonam
The system uses broad gauge. The section from Washermanpet to Beach handles predominantly freight traffic from Chennai Port, and is not geared well to serve passengers.
Read more about this topic: Transport In Chennai
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