And the train chugs out of Royapuram

And the train chugs out of Royapuram

In any discussions on rail transport or even motorised transport in the country, the Royapuram railway station cannot be ignored. It has become a permanent feature in the annals of railway history for the distinction of being the point of origin for the first train service to be operated in south India. 

It was from Royapuram railway station that fully fledged train services began their operation in the Indian subcontinent. Trains still run on that stretch.

Today the railway station seems a shadow of the past with a fading red-brick building, the only structure to mark the presence of a historic railway station from where commercial train operation was inaugurated on July 1, 1856. Historians credit Royapuram for sowing the seeds for the city’s phenomenal growth in industries, becoming a commercial trading powerhouse, and housing developments in the city and suburbs. 

The first train service from the Royapuram station was inaugurated with a religious ceremony by the then Governor of Madras, Lord Harris. The historic inauguration has been captured in a sketch drawn by Capt. Barnett Fort of the Madras Army. The inauguration had two trains operating, with ‘300 invitees of European society’ being taken to Amoor (now Ambur) via Wallajah Road junction and the ‘native’ guests taken to Triveloor (now Tiruvallur). 

In ‘The Illustrated London News’ which was published on September 6, 1856, the inaugural run of the train journey from the Royapuram station depicts the picture in those days where the train proceeded across the arid plain of the Carnatic, a countless number of Indians thronging the 65-mile route, and lazy cattle and herdsmen startled by the shrieking train that passed through patches of pastures. 

The railway station belonged to Madras, and the Southern Mahratta Railway Company operated as the headquarters till 1922, after which it gradually lost its prominence to Chennai Egmore, later Central Station, from where long-distance trains started operating, and Beach Station for suburban train services. However, according to retired railway officials, the Royapuram railway station remained a District Traffic Superintendent Office for several years after losing steam to the three railway stations and also to the Southern Railway’s headquarters building located adjacent to the Central station.

Today, if one wants to see the vestiges of the hoary past, one needs to travel by suburban train from Chennai Beach to Tiruvallur or Arakkonam. Starting the journey from Royapuram railway station (located next to Beach), the historic train journey could be experienced, though the settings along the entire route, which was once filled with paddy fields, have given way to civic developments of railway overbridges, subways, several high-rise buildings on either side of the tracks, and industries dotting the stretch.