Vadodara Junction railway station


Vadodara Junction railway station is the main station in the Indian city of Vadodara, Gujarat. It is the ninth busiest railway station in India in terms of frequency of trains after Kanpur Central, Vijayawada Junction, Delhi Junction, New Delhi, Ambala Cant, Howrah, Patna Junction and Asansol Junction and busiest in Gujarat state and as well as a major stop on the western railway zone of Indian railways. Around 170 trains starts, ends, or passes through the station daily.

History

The station was built in 1861 for the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway company by then Gaekwad ruler Maharaja Khanderao. The existing building was newly constructed by Indian Railways in 1954 by demolishing the original smaller station. The station celebrated 150 years of establishment on 9January 2010.

Amenities

It is a fairly large station with 7 platforms on the main line with over 250 trains halting. There are 2 foot over bridge connecting platform 1 to 6. Platform 2, 3 and 6 has sliding ramps and platform 1 has escalators. There are two exits. One via Platform 1 that opens towards the old city while the other end is towards platform 6. Platform 6 is the longest with 704m length. A Pay & Use Tiolet facility is available at Platform 6.
Platform 1 has waiting room and retiring rooms as well as a refreshment canteen. Several ATM are located just outside platform 1. Platform 7 is ahead of platform 1 and acts as a terminus for some passenger and MEMU trains and facilitates reversing of some trains including the Shanti Express and the Gujarat Sampark Kranti Express, which use the Vadodara Delhi line as well as the Vadodara Ahmedabad line.

Railway lines and college

The station serves three lines: the direct line between Ahmedabad and Mumbai; Vadodara and Chhota Udepur and the Delhi line via Ratlam, Kota and Mathura. Trains going towards the northern region use the Ratlam line while all other trains use the Ahmedabad-Mumbai line, such as the Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express, Delhi Sarai Rohilla Bandra Terminus Garib Rath Express, Gujarat Mail, Karnavati Express, Suryanagri Express and Ranakpur Express. The prestigious Mumbai Rajdhani Express, August Kranti Rajdhani Express, Thiruvananthapuram Rajdhani Express, Golden Temple Mail and Avantika Express amongst others also halt at this station.
The Railway Staff College is the alma mater for Officers of Indian Railways. It is situated in a sprawling campus of of garden and wooded land in the Pratap Vilas Palace at Lalbaug, Vadodara. It provides training to all levels of Indian railway officers, from probationers to general managers.
The college was founded in 1930 at Dehradun and then shifted to its present sylvan surroundings at Vadodara in 1952. Pratap Vilas Palace is surrounded by lush green lawns and was designed by C.F. Stevens in the renaissance style. The property was purchased from the Gaekwads, the erstwhile rulers of Vadodara and is home to peacocks and migratory birds.

Vadodara electric loco shed

has one of the largest electric loco sheds in the Western Railway zone. The shed houses more than 130 locomotives, which include WAP-4, WAP-5, WAP-7, WAM-4 and WAG-5 locomotives. Additionally it had an AC electric trip shed to house locos coming from other sheds and an AC/DC dual loco trip shed which houses the WCAM Class locomotives from Valsad shed and which allows locomotive changes at Vadodara because the trains which were coming from New Delhi mainline are AC Locomotives and the trains going to Mumbai need AC/DC Loco. Until 2011, Mumbai was under DC supply from before Borivali when the Western Railway in Mumbai changed over to the AC system in February 2012, the WCAM locos have been transferred to the Kalyan shed.
It is currently holds 40+ WAP 4, 20+ WAG-5, 70+ WAP 5 and 80+ WAP 7 locomotive respectively.
It also has a MEMU car shed which houses the Mainline Electric Multiple units which provides feeder services to Ahmedabad, Surat, Dahod and Godhra.

Trains

The following major trains start from Vadodara Junction Railway Station: