The 96 km Kalka-Shimla Railway Climbs More Than 1,400 Metres on a 2 ft 6 in Track, and Its Tunnel and Bridge Counts Differ by Source

The Kalka-Shimla Railway runs 96.6 km from Kalka, at 656 metres above sea level, to Shimla, at 2,075 metres, on a single track whose rails are 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) apart. The evaluation that UNESCO’s advisers wrote in 2008 says it opened to the public on 9 November 1903, and the Himachal Pradesh government’s heritage page gives the same date.

Most services are cancelled as this is written. The Tribune reported on 1 October 2026 that ten trains, among them the Himalayan Queen and the Shivalik Deluxe, are cancelled until 30 November while crews repair track near Bridge No. 57. The details are in the last two sections.

A line first mentioned in 1847

ICOMOS, the body that evaluated the line for UNESCO, says a rail link to Shimla was first mentioned in 1847. Shimla mattered because the colonial government spent its summers there. The broad gauge of the time, 1.67 metres, was basically incompatible with rail in the hills, so the first survey in 1884 and 1885 was for a narrow-gauge line with no gradient steeper than 1 in 33.

The Delhi line reached Kalka in 1891. A contract followed with the Ambala-Kalka Railway for a line of 2 ft gauge, and the design was approved in 1899. Work had begun when the Army asked for a wider track, and the gauge went up to 2 ft 6 in. The Himachal government’s page dates the start of work to 1898.

ICOMOS says the company had to meet the cost of construction itself and the government supplied only the land. Earlier lines were financed differently, as our piece on who paid for India’s railways explains.

Heavy snow on 26 December 1903 damaged the new track and set off many landslides, ICOMOS says. The company ran into financial trouble despite high fares, and the government bought the line on 1 January 1905.

What 96 km of hillside demands

The ruling gradient is 1 in 33, or 30 metres of rise in every 1,000 of track. ICOMOS counted 917 curves, which it says add up to about 70% of the line’s length, and IRCTC Tourism gives the sharpest as 48 degrees. Near Sonwara, at 1,334 metres, the line turns through a complete spiral.

The climb comes in stages. The track rises to Kumarhatti Dagshai at 1,579 metres, stays level or dips slightly as far as Kanda Ghat at 1,433 metres, and then makes its last climb to Shimla.

The bridges are the line’s most recognisable feature. ICOMOS counts 74 masonry bridges with several rows of arches, which it compares to Roman aqueducts. Bridge 541 has 34 arches on four levels and is 53 metres long and 23 metres high. UNESCO’s summary text calls the line’s multi-arch gallery bridge the world’s highest, and the Himachal government’s page places it at Kanoh.

A Tribune report in August 2023 put the average speed at about 25 km/h. Scheduled journeys now take between 4 hours 55 minutes and 5 hours 20 minutes, according to a train-listing site.

How many tunnels and bridges, depending on who is counting

The figures quoted most often are 103 tunnels and more than 800 bridges.

On tunnels, ICOMOS says the line began with 107, and landslides have reduced them to 102. The Himachal government’s page says 103, with one not in service, which squares with 102 working. IRCTC Tourism says 103, a railway official quoted by The Tribune in 2023 said 102, and the railway’s page on Google Arts and Culture still says 107.

Bridges are harder. ICOMOS counts 988 bridges and viaducts, which together make up 3% of the line’s length. IRCTC Tourism says 864. The Himachal page gives 800 in one place and 864 in another, and Google Arts says over 850. We could not find what the lower counts leave out.

A November 2024 article by the exam-coaching site Vajiram & Ravi says the line holds a Guinness record for its 96 km rise in altitude. We found no Guinness entry, so we do not repeat the claim.

Tunnel 33 and the story of Colonel Barog

Tunnel 33 at Barog is 1,143.61 metres long, the longest on the line, according to the railway’s Google Arts story. IRCTC Tourism rounds the length to 1,144 metres.

The Google Arts story and The Better India tell the same tale of its name. A British engineer, Colonel Barog, planned to dig from both sides of the hill and meet in the middle. His calculations were wrong and the two headings never met. Both say he was fined one rupee and later took his own life, and The Better India adds that locals believe he is buried near the abandoned tunnel, about a kilometre from the finished one. Neither page cites a railway record, and neither the ICOMOS evaluation nor the Himachal government’s page mentions him, so we treat it as a story, not a documented event.

The Himachal page names H. S. Harington as chief engineer and says the Barog alignment was chosen with help from a workman called Bhalku, of Jhajja village near Chail. The Better India calls him a shepherd who tapped the rock with a staff and listened to find where to dig, and says no record shows who approached whom. Northern Railway’s museum in Shimla carries his name.

The 2008 UNESCO listing

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was inscribed in 1999. UNESCO’s page says boundary changes followed in 2005, when the Nilgiri Mountain Railway joined, and in 2008. The World Heritage Committee, meeting in Quebec City, approved the Kalka Shimla extension on the morning of 7 July 2008, UNESCO’s release says, on cultural criteria (ii) and (iv).

The committee’s decision says the railway shows technology moving from Europe to colonial India and that Indians soon used it to settle in the mountains. The ICOMOS evaluation was more guarded. It did not accept the nomination file’s comparison with Austria’s Semmering railway, and said the line’s layout had long been known in continental Europe. It still recommended approval.

UNESCO’s summary text says the line was “built in the mid-19th century.” ICOMOS says it was planned then and completed between 1899 and 1903. The Press Information Bureau said in March 2021 that three of India’s five hill railways have World Heritage status.

From Stewart steam to the rail motor

Stewart & Co of Glasgow built the first steam locomotives, four-wheeled in 1900 and six-wheeled in 1902, followed by ten-wheeled engines, ICOMOS says. Diesels arrived from 1952, and the last steam engines left service in 1980. One locomotive delivered in 1905, KC 520, was restored in 2001 for tourist trips.

Petrol rail motor cars, single self-propelled coaches, began carrying mail in 1911. Diesel-electric ones with large windows followed in 1932, and car no. 8 is known as the “Queen of Shivalik.”

In 2023 an agency called Stambh advised that electrifying the line was not feasible, The Tribune reported. Its reasons included the effect of overhead wires on the heritage view and tunnels too small to wire. The Ambala division’s manager said the report had gone to the Railway Board, which would decide, and we found no later decision.

Timings, fares and booking, checked on 8 October 2026

Northern Railway’s pages and IRCTC’s booking engine would not load for us, so the figures below come from ConfirmTkt, a train-listing site, and are indicative. Check IRCTC or the National Train Enquiry System before you plan anything.

For Kalka to Shimla, ConfirmTkt lists four daily trains, two of them named. The Shivalik Deluxe, 52451, runs from 5:45 am to 10:40 am with a first-class fare of ₹595. The Himalayan Queen, 52455, leaves at 11:55 am and arrives at 4:55 pm, with chair car at ₹265 and first class at ₹475. Coming down, the Himalayan Queen (52456) leaves Shimla at 6:40 pm and reaches Kalka at 11:35 pm. The site marks every one of them cancelled for 9 October.

Since 1 November 2024 Indian Railways has limited advance reservations to 60 days before the travel date, Onmanorama reported, with foreign tourists keeping 365 days.

Closed until 30 November, and the seasons

Heavy rain on 29 August 2026 washed soil from under the track near Bridge No. 57, leaving a section hanging in the air, The Tribune says. National Herald reported that more than 400 passengers and crew were brought off the line and ten trains were cancelled on 30 August. Later rain washed away new construction material, and the 1 October report says work should now finish in about a month.

Ten trains stay fully cancelled until 30 November, including 52451, 52452, 52455 and 52456. Two run in part. The 52453 operates only from Dharampur to Shimla, and the 52454 only from Kalka to Dharampur.

Rain from 7 to 14 July 2023 damaged 20 to 25 points on the line, and full service returned on 2 October 2023 after nearly three months, The Tribune reported. In 2025, a landslide between Koti and Kanoh halted services until 5 September, Outlook Traveller reported, and from 30 May to 12 June trains ran only as far as Tara Devi, about 7 km short of Shimla, while Bridge 800 was renovated, PTI reported.

Snow falls mainly on the last stretch from mid-December to the end of January, and ICOMOS says it can reach 4 metres and shut the service. Since 1996 the line had averaged 21 significant landslide, mudslide or rockfall incidents a year, as of ICOMOS’s 2008 report.