What numbering systems were used prior to 1989 and the adoption of 4-digit ‘universal’ numbers?

June 22, 2019, 1:43 PM

The 4-digit system with a unique number for each long-distance train regardless of the zones that it operates in came into force around 1989. Earlier, trains were numbered from ‘1’ all the way up to 3-digit numbers within each zone. Numbers were thus not unique across zones, and a given train sometimes changed numbers on the same route as it crossed zonal or other boundaries. E.g., 1/2 could refer to the Howrah – Kalka Mail on NR, or the Golconda Exp. on SCR, or the Madras – Mangalore Mail on SR. The 5/6 Punjab Mail between Bombay (Victoria Terminus) and New Delhi became 37/38 for the New Delhi – Ferozpur section to avoid confusion with the 5/6 Howrah – Amritsar Mail which also ran on NR tracks. The 3/4 Frontier Mail became 31/32 from New Delhi, to avoid confusion with the 3/4 HWH-BB Mail (via ALD). List of old train numbers and their new 4-digit versions. In many cases, the final digits of the new number correspond to the old number of the same train service. More examples of the kind of confusion that had to be dealt with before the adoption of 4-digit numbers: Until quite late, Howrah still had to deal with two sets each of 3 Up / 4 Down (SER: HWH-MAS Mail and ER: HWH-BBVT Mail via ALD), 5 Up / 6 Down (SER: HWH-Rourkela Exp and ER: HWH-ASR Mail), 7 Up / 8 Down (SER: HWH-Puri Exp and ER: Toofan Exp), 9 Up / 10 Down (SER: Sri Jagannath Exp and ER: Doon Exp), and 11 Up / 12 Down (SER: Ispat Express and ER: HWH-Delhi Exp.). In 1988 or 1989, 15 Up / 16 Down could — for a brief period — refer to both the SER Howrah-Ranchi-Hatia Exp. and the ER Howrah-Bolpur Shantiniketan Exp. The Kalka Mail was numbered 1 Up / 2 Down and the Howrah – Bombay Mail as 2 Up / 1 Down to avoid confusion.

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To disambiguate coinciding train numbers from different zones, reservation clerks and others often used extra annotations, for instance ’31/WR’ for 31 Down on WR, or ’31/F/WR’ (31 Down on WR, Forward journey booking), or ’31/R/WR’ (31 Down on WR, Return journey quota).

Usually the ‘down’ train of a pair of trains between two destinations had the lower number (the odd number) and the ‘up’ train had the higher number (the even number) but this is far from uniform. (See up/down note below.) E.g., Charminar Exp. from Hyderabad to Madras is numbered 2760 even though this is the one that is going in the ‘down’ direction.

Reservation System

Today, the reservation system is networked to allow most stations with online reservation facilities to offer bookings for almost any train from anywhere to anywhere. Earlier different sections of a train’s route, which corresponded to different quotas for reservations, were given different numbers, with ad hoc alphabetic suffixes such as ‘A’, ‘F’, ‘R’, etc., in the reservation systems of each section. E.g., ‘6635F’ for the forward quota for 6635, ‘6635R’ for the return journey quota, ‘6635A’ for the part of the train that went to MAQ after splitting at PGT; ‘6635B’ for the part of the train that went to CHTS, etc. Each booking operator only saw the numbers for which his station had a quota for issuing tickets.

Source – IFRCA.org

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