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Bengaluru is the "new" name for Bangalore. India is replacing many of the old colonial names.
Old Name New Name
Bangalore Bengaluru
Bombay Mumbai
Madras Chennai
Calcutta Kolkata

Those are the ones I can think of, I'm sure there are others.

Stations also get renamed e.g. Bombay Victoria Terminus -> Mumbai CSMT (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus)
 
Old Name New Name
Bangalore Bengaluru
Bombay Mumbai
Madras Chennai
Calcutta Kolkata

Those are the ones I can think of, I'm sure there are others.

Stations also get renamed e.g. Bombay Victoria Terminus -> Mumbai CSMT (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus)

Yup. Bangalore to Bengaluru is relatively benign. Similar is Mangalore to Mengaluru.

There are more drastic changes too, specially of station names:
  • Trivandrum to Thiruvantipuram in Kerala on the Malabar Coast by Arabian Sea
  • Waltair to Vishakhapatnam often shortened to Vizag (huge Indian Navy Base on the Bay of Bengal) It is a terminal station on the Chennai - Kolkata route. All trains reverse direction here.
  • Allahabad to Prayagraj on the Delhi - Kolkata route
  • Mughal Sarai to Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay (on the Delhi - Kolkata route, the largest Marshaling Yard in India and fourth largest in the world) often referred to as DDU (the station code)
  • Gomoh to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Gomoh on the Delhi - Kolkata Grand Chord Route
  • Gulbarga to Kalaburagi in Karnataka on the Mumbai - Chennai route
  • Belgaum to Belagavi in Karnataka
etc.

Usually a simple Wikipedia lookup suffices to see what the original name was. India is remarkably well covered in Wikipedia.

Incidentally the name of the station in Bengaluru in question is Sir M Visweswaraya Terminal.

The medal for ultimate silliness in station names at present is taken by what used to be Madras Central which now is named:

Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station (Chennai). People simply refer to it as Chennai Central.
 
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It is really confusing to us who do not know any other country's geography. I might suggest a pinned overall map of a country (India in this case) references to actual locations that are cited. Then the link to open railway map for those of us who might follow the post more closely.
 
I guess that's like the "William H Gray III 30th st. Station" in Philadelphia which is mostly referred to as just " 30th St." No disrespect intended towards the late Representative Gray but it is just easier to say.
Let's not forget "Thurgood Marhsall BWI Airport Station," "Moynihan Train Hall," "Ronald Reagon National Airport," and a slew of other airports around the world named for people.
 
It is really confusing to us who do not know any other country's geography. I might suggest a pinned overall map of a country (India in this case) references to actual locations that are cited. Then the link to open railway map for those of us who might follow the post more closely.
There is a reason that a Railway Map of India may not be the most helpful thing. People simply don't realize how dense the network in some parts of India is

See for example, straight from the Survey of India and this is the 2024 edition (PDF): Railway Map of India 2024

That is why I suggest that when you want to look up some place either look for it in Wikipedia and/or Google it or look for it on one of the online map systems like Google Maps for example.

And if you really want to look up details I would recommend my friend Samit Roychoudhury's excellent "The Great Indian Railway Atlas 4th Edition". It is a substantial paperback book has every detail of every nook and cranny of Indian Railways and Bangladesh Railways and also includes schematics of every Metro in India upto 2022. You can look it up at: https://indianrailstuff.com/online-railmaps/
 
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Nice to see "The Great Indian Railway Atlas" getting a mention. I bought the previous edition from the India Rail Museum in Delhi a few years ago, very detailed indeed.
I used to like to purchase "Trains at a Glance", a comprehensive India timetable available from most station bookstalls, but I think it is now only available by mail order?
All the train timetable information is now available online anyway.
 
Nice to see "The Great Indian Railway Atlas" getting a mention. I bought the previous edition from the India Rail Museum in Delhi a few years ago, very detailed indeed.
I used to like to purchase "Trains at a Glance", a comprehensive India timetable available from most station bookstalls, but I think it is now only available by mail order?
All the train timetable information is now available online anyway.
Indeed, the best source of time table and running status information in my experience is the website https://indiarailinfo.com/. It has not only the scheduled arrival and departure at stations where a train stops, but also the passing time for each station where it does not stop!

It is a site that is run crowdsourced by the rail fan community. It is quite remarkable actually. Incidentally that site also has a Railway Map.

There is information about composition of consists of each train, how many consists are used and where the consists are homed, what locomotive links are used for a train normally, the type of locomotive used, and the home shed to which they belong etc.

The site also aspires to have (not quite there yet) detailed information on accommodation availability, waiting list (WL) and Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) status on each train(an Indian thing that is not something people would be familiar with in the US)

Here is an example train specific page for train 12301 Howrah - New Delhi Rajdhani Express. Notice the amount of detail including information such as which platform the train normally uses at each station, which trains it crosses and overtakes etc.!
 
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Bangladesh Railway had floated a global tender for 200 passenger coaches a while back. It looks likes RITES, the export arm of Indian Railways has won the contract They will be supplying 200 LHB Coaches in various Airconditioned and non-Airconditioned configurations. They will be European UIC standard compliant coaches with air brakes and quadruple disk brakes per axle capable of operating at 160kph. 200 car contract is worth $111.26 Million!

https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...er-coaches/articleshow/110279733.cms?from=mdr

In fact these will be pretty standard cars as used on Indian Railways (with different internal furnishing as specified by Bangladesh Railways) which are actually capable of operating at upto 200kph and tested for commercial service at upto 180kph, though in actual operations limited to 160kph at present in India. They are used both as individual cars in standard tightlock coupler coupled consists and in articulated Vande Bharat Express consists.
 
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$111.26 USD WHAT A DEAL .. even trailing six zeros …
Indeed! Added those 6 zeroes. It is quite a deal. That is exactly what caught my ears when I heard the news on Door Darshan (the Indian Government TV network) and then I hunted down a printed article on it. No wonder they can build and deploy 6,000 - 7,000 coaches a year. Mass production in low labor cost places has its advantages. But at present they really don't have much surplus capacity beyond meeting their internal needs of retiring replacing the 60,000 strong fleet of the previous generation Schlieren ICF cars while growing the overall fleet to 80,000+
 
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But at present they reallu don;t have much surplus capacity beyond meeting their internal needs of retiring replacing the 60,000 strong fleet of the previous generation Schlieren ICF cars while growing the overall fleet to 80,000+
What are the reasons for retirements?
AGE, mileage, fatigue cracks. corrasion, interior too damaged, refurbishing too costly VS new? Or another?
 
What are the reasons for retirements?
AGE, mileage, fatigue cracks. corrasion, interior too damaged, refurbishing too costly VS new? Or another?
Speed limit and safety mostly. The LHBs are much safer in derailments and collisions and have a speed limit of 160/200kph. The older cars are limited to mostly 100/110kph.

Also they are predominantly chain link couplers and vacuum braked and lacking yaw dampers while the LHBs have tight lock couplers, are air braked and equipped with European standard Fiat trucks and air suspension with quadruple disk brakes per axle.

Whatever remains of the old stock will be totally gone in less than 5 years.

IR is into doing these massive across the board standardization ever since the so called unigauge project in which in one fell swoop they converted the entire Meter Gauge subnetwork they had into Broad Gauge.
 
Speed limit and safety mostly. The LHBs are much safer in derailments and collisions and have a speed limit of 160/200kph. The older cars are limited to mostly 100/110kph.

Also they are predominantly chain link couplers and vacuum braked and lacking yaw dampers while the LHBs have tight lock couplers, are air braked and equipped with European standard Fiat trucks and air suspension with quadruple disk brakes per axle.
Those are definitely good reasons especially the speed limits. Having any 100 MPH train slowed following a 62 - 65 MPH train would really gum up the works, Are the slower cars assigned to isolated lines as much as possible to prevent this happening?

Daughter has a long business trip there. Can you give a thumbnail spotting way for her to avoid the vacuum braked car trains? Would riding just AC cars help?
 
So this would be the end of vacuum brakes in India? Or are they still in use on freight, thus requiring the continued use and procurement of dual-braked locomotives?

What about the neighboring countries to which India presently runs or might one day run thru trains? Not that any one-sided changes in standards might preclude such thru running?

I guess that's like the "William H Gray III 30th st. Station" in Philadelphia which is mostly referred to as just " 30th St." No disrespect intended towards the late Representative Gray but it is just easier to say.
Still miles better than the sponsorship deals on sports stadiums and the like that lead to them being renamed every couple of years.
 
Those are definitely good reasons especially the speed limits. Having any 100 MPH train slowed following a 62 - 65 MPH train would really gum up the works, Are the slower cars assigned to isolated lines as much as possible to prevent this happening?
No. Many named old LD trains still have ICF rakes (consists). There are even a few hybrid ICF rakes with air braked ICF coaches, like the venerable Howrah-Delhi-Kalka Mail, now called Netaji Express, even though it still carries mail.
Daughter has a long business trip there. Can you give a thumbnail spotting way for her to avoid the vacuum braked car trains? Would riding just AC cars help?
All of the Rajdhani, Duronto, Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi, Vande Bharat, Amrit Bharat, Humsafar, Tejas, Garib Rath and a couple of other classes of trains are LHB. The old named trains are about two thirds LHB and a third ICF with trains getting transitioned progressively. Additionally generally any train that has a Cream and Maroon (Utkrisht) livery or the classic light and dark Blue livery is ICF, and Red and Grey livery or Sky Blue (AC Day Coach) livery is LHB. Best way to verify is to get the train number and plug it into the search field of the following web page:

https://indiarailinfo.com/trains

It will bring up your train. Click on the line showing your train, and on the page that comes up look near the bottom where the consist layout and equipment type (Rake - LHB or ICF) is shown. For example for 12302 (New Delhi - Howrah Rajdhani Express via Grand Chord) it shows:

1716990525175.png

OTOH for 12312 (Kalka - Delhi Jn. - Howrah Netaji Express) it shows:

1716991983793.png

Notice the "Rake" information in each. That is the most reliable way to check what is actually operating at present.

The Coach identifiers appear exactly the same way on the ticket. The letter(s) in them identify the type of coach. Here is an explanation of only those that appear in the diagrams above. There are about half a dozen other types of coaches not listed here.

S - Non AC 3 Tier Sleeper
GS - Unreserved Non AC Sitting accommodation
H - AC First
A - AC 2 Tier Sleeper
B - AC 3 Tier Sleeper
HA - AC First and 2 Tier Combo
PC - AC Pantry Car/Hot Buffet Car
EOG - Generator/Luggage/Guard
SLR - non-AC Seats/Luggage/Guard
HCP - High Capacity Parcel
L - Locomotive (on these trains a single 6200HP WAP-7)

Notice that Rajdhani is fully AC whereas Netaji is mostly non-AC. Also notice that both trains carry an entire car of Parcel and Mail - the HCP. Also, the discerning will notice that the Rajdhani has End/Head on Power Generation (HEP power) whereas the Netaji consists of self-generating Coaches with axle driven Alternators charging banks of Batteries in each coach, with the alternator/rectifier/batteries/inverters powering the individual coaches.

So this would be the end of vacuum brakes in India? Or are they still in use on freight, thus requiring the continued use and procurement of dual-braked locomotives?

They have many years to go before the transition is complete on both the passenger and freight side. All new equipment is air braked. Some ICF coaches have been converted to air braked. New locomotives are no longer equipped with Vacuum brakes.
What about the neighboring countries to which India presently runs or might one day run thru trains? Not that any one-sided changes in standards might preclude such thru running?
The exchange pool is distinct from the general equipment within the country so as long as the interchange pool works in both countries all is good.

There is no rail equipment flow between India and Pakistan at present and is unlikely to be resumed anytime soon. Between India and Bangladesh and India and Nepal all cross border equipment is of the latest generation LHB type (Bangladesh has about a hundred LHB Coaches and just ordered 200 more), Within Nepal everything is new.

Within Bangladesh the situation is same as in India, but probably a few years behind. In addition to assorted classic ex Pakistan Railway equipment, they have more modern air braked equipment from PT Inka (Phillipines) and CRRC (China) and RITES (India) But that has no impact on what happens in India and vice versa since what crosses the border is all new air braked LHB cars. On the freight side also only air braked equipment cross the border, though Bangladesh is adequately equipped with dual braked and dual coupler locomotives just like India. Additionally more than half of Bangladesh Railway is dual gauge (Broad and Meter), and of the remaining half, half is Broad (West) and the other half Meter Gauge (East).
 
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There is no rail equipment flow between India and Pakistan at present and is unlikely to be resumed anytime soon. Between India and Bangladesh and India and Nepal all cross border equipment is of the latest generation, Within Nepal everything is new. Within Bangladesh the situation is same as in India, but probably a few years behind. But that has no impact on what happens in India and vice versa since what crosses the border is all new air braked stuff.
I understood there are no passenger trains between Pakistan and India, but are the crossings closed to freight also?

I heard that there are also plans to build a railway line from India into Myanmar. I'm not sure how that would work with the differing gauges.

Was Myanmar ever connected to India in the past? I understand some of the steam locomotives used in Myanmar are of Indian meter gauge types / classes.
 
I understood there are no passenger trains between Pakistan and India, but are the crossings closed to freight also?
No freight either since Pakistan unilaterally banned trade with India after Pulwama/Balakote. So there is nothing to send or receive at present - officially anyway. There is some smuggling but that is all by trucks.
I heard that there are also plans to build a railway line from India into Myanmar. I'm not sure how that would work with the differing gauges.
Myanmar is currently Meter Gauge. If and when trans border happens it will be Container traffic that will be transshipped. Indeed there is cross border trade using Containers which bridge the gap between rail heads, by road, but the volume is very small. Transshipment or gauge changing equipment at the border will be involved indefinitely since the Trans-Asian Railway in SE Asia will be Standard Gauge and Indian subcontinent will continue to be Broad Gauge until and unless India at some point gets the fever to convert to Standard Gauge and do so in 20 years, as they seem to do such conversions when they get it in their head to do so.
Was Myanmar ever connected to India in the past? I understand some of the steam locomotives used in Myanmar are of Indian meter gauge types / classes.
No. There has never been a connection between the Burma Railways and Indian Railways in the day of the Empire. The most common equipment between the two are the Second World War vintage MAWD War Department steam locos which were sent to Burma after recapture from the Japanese. IIRC most of the pre-war stuff got destroyed. Even parts of Indian Railways was decimated during the war as entire branch line tracks were dismantled and sent off to the Middle East together with considerable amount of rolling stock, which never came back to India, and India was never compensated for it either.
 
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According to recent news reports, finally the venerable Netaji Express (erstwhile Howrah - Delhi - Kalka Mail, one of the oldest trains running continuously for over 150 years now) is getting LHB consists in the near future. This basically means getting 5 or 6 23 car consists (which is like getting an entire Amtrak rolling stock delivery for a year designated for a single train)

Apparently the holdup was not unavailability of new cars. It had to do with lack of a long enough siding in the servicing facility at Kalka. So far they had to split up the train in Chandigarh and leave half the train there for servicing. Now the new full length servicing track is ready in Kalka so the conversion of equipment can happen. Indian Railways does not like to split and join train parts en route for trains equipped with HEP, and the default mode for LHB equipment is HEP. There used to be many so called Sectional Carriages which were dropped/picked up en route. Now they are all gone. Instead there are wayside quotas set aside but still some of the random single seat rides are gone. But then again there are an order of magnitude more trains that run from Podunk 1 to Podunk 2 providing an incredible set of city par single seat rides, way more than was available before even if it is only one to three times a week.
 
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