Matheran Hill Railway: The 19.97 km Two-Foot Line an Indian Family Opened in 1907, With 221 Curves and One Tunnel on the Climb to a Hill Station Without Cars

The Matheran Hill Railway climbs about 765 metres in 19.97 km, from Neral at 39.31 m above sea level to Matheran at 803.98 m, on track only 0.61 m (two feet) wide. It was inaugurated on 22 March 1907, and Central Railway has announced that through trains between Neral and Matheran resume on 30 October 2026 after the yearly monsoon break. The length, heights and dates come from India’s own entry for the line on UNESCO’s tentative list, which also counts 221 curves, one tunnel and more than 121 bridges, most of them minor.

A hill nobody had visited until 1850

The Maharashtra state gazetteer for Kolaba district says Matheran was almost without a history until 1850. That year H. P. Malet, the Collector of Thana, camped at Cauk, walked part of the way up the hill one evening, came back the next day and returned in November to live in a hut for about a month. Lord Elphinstone, then Governor of Bombay, put in a better road from Neral between 1855 and 1858, and the gazetteer says the hill became fashionable. Britannica, which places the town on the western side of the Western Ghats, describes it as a resort first frequented in the mid-19th century by British officials and visitors from Bombay.

Getting up was slow. Before the railway, the gazetteer says, visitors climbed on horseback or were carried in palanquins, covered seats borne on poles. The name, UNESCO’s entry says, means “the wooded head”.

The family that paid for the line

The gazetteer credits Abdul Hussein, the second son of Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy of Bombay, with pioneering the railway. The Free Press Journal says the father began construction in 1901 at his son’s urging, that the line cost Rs 16 lakh and that it was completed in 1907. It adds that the line was built by an Indian businessman and not by the colonial administration. Sir Adamjee, born in 1846 by that paper’s account, became the first Indian Sheriff of Bombay in 1897. A marble bust of him stands at the Matheran terminus, installed in 1985.

The paperwork has a date. The FIBIS wiki, citing a British Library agreement, records that the Matheran Steam Light Tramway Company was set up under the Indian Tramways Act of 1886 and a Tramway Order of 28 July 1904, with Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy and Sons as agents. Grace’s Guide also gives 28 July 1904 for the Public Works Department’s authorisation and March 1907 for the opening with three engines. The gazetteer adds that the government provided the land free of cost.

What 19.97 km of climbing looks like

UNESCO’s entry divides the line into three sections. The first runs 5.57 km from Neral, which has the line’s workshops, engine shed and carriage depot, to Jumapatti at 241.81 m. The second is 11.57 km from Jumapatti to Aman Lodge at 758.95 m. It is the curviest stretch, with a horseshoe embankment, backward-forward curves under Mount Barry, Water Pipe station at 484.63 m and the single tunnel, known as One Kiss. The last 2.83 km runs from Aman Lodge to Matheran with no stations in between.

The average gradient is 1 in 25 and the steepest is 1 in 20, which UNESCO’s entry calls the limit for an adhesion railway, meaning one that grips by wheel friction alone. Maximum speed is 20 km/h, dropping to 8 km/h on the sharpest curves. A sign on one bend reads “Ah, what a sharp curve”. The entry says the line used floating axles, articulated wheel sets that let trains follow tight curves, and that the section above Jumapatti has four ordinary sidings and four catch sidings to stop a runaway train.

Published numbers for the line differ by source:

• Length: UNESCO gives 19.97 km. The gazetteer measures 13 miles from Neral to Matheran, and Outlook Traveller and Grace’s Guide say 21 km.
• Curves: UNESCO counts 221. Outlook Traveller says more than 236.
• Sharpest curve: UNESCO gives a radius of 18.25 m. The gazetteer says 48 feet, about 14.6 m.

This article uses UNESCO’s figures because they come with sectional survey detail, and names the other source where it differs.

From a family tramway to Central Railway

The gazetteer traces what happened after the founders. It says the line was not looked after as well once Sir Adamjee and his son had died, and in 1927 it was mortgaged to the Maharaja of Gwalior for Rs 4 lakh. In 1928 a court decree let the Maharaja run it as a limited company. The Great Indian Peninsula Railway took it over from April 1948, and the 1951 regrouping of Indian Railways placed it under Central Railway. In 1956 to 1957, the gazetteer records, 37,458 passengers were booked from Matheran station.

Closed by rain, back each time

Rain damage has stopped the whole line before. The Free Press Journal reported on 3 October 2022 that the Neral to Aman Lodge section had been suspended since 2019, after heavy rains damaged about 20 locations and washed away stretches of track. Lokmat Times reported on 27 October 2022 that the service had resumed with a Vistadome coach, a coach with large glass windows, and quoted the Railway Minister’s post that the toy train “whistles again”.

Each monsoon now brings a planned pause on the Neral to Aman Lodge section. Aaj Tak reported on 16 June 2026 that regular service was suspended until 15 October 2026 for landslide and other risks, with a daily shuttle between Matheran and Aman Lodge continuing. On Monday 21 September 2026, the Free Press Journal reported, a landslide near Kadyavarcha Ganpati, about 134 metres above Water Pipe station, buried a section of track in soil and rock. A railway official from Matheran said then that restoration work was under way.

The 2026 timetable

The Free Press Journal reported on 29 October 2026, and the Marathi paper Prahaar on 28 October, that Central Railway would restart Neral to Matheran trains on Friday 30 October. The Free Press Journal lists two trains each way daily:

• 52103 leaves Neral at 8.50 am and reaches Matheran at 11.30 am.
• 52105 leaves Neral at 10.25 am and reaches Matheran at 1.05 pm.
• 52104 leaves Matheran at 2.45 pm and reaches Neral at 5.30 pm.
• 52106 leaves Matheran at 4 pm and reaches Neral at 6.40 pm.

Trains 52103 and 52104 carry three second-class coaches, one Vistadome coach and two second-class coaches with luggage space. Trains 52105 and 52106 carry a first-class coach in place of the Vistadome. The Aman Lodge to Matheran shuttle takes about 18 minutes and runs six times each way daily, with two extra services each way on Saturdays and Sundays. These times were as announced on 29 October 2026 and can change with weather and track conditions, so check Central Railway’s notices before travelling. In 2025 the through trains resumed on 6 November.

Why Matheran has no cars

The Supreme Court’s judgment of 6 August 2025 says the state gave in-principle approval for an eco-sensitive zone in November 2000 and that the Ministry of Environment and Forest issued the final notification on 4 February 2003. Paragraph 4(n) of that notification restricts vehicle movement within the municipal limits except for an ambulance, a fire engine and a tractor carrying solid waste. The court describes Matheran as the only pedestrian hill station, with about 4,400 permanent residents at the 2011 Census and about 8 lakh tourists a year.

The same judgment dealt with the town’s hand-pulled rickshaws. The court allowed clay paver blocks on the main road from Dasturi Naka to the Shivaji Maharaj statue and told Maharashtra to end hand-pulled rickshaws within six months, replacing them with e-rickshaws hired out to the pullers, other poorer residents and Adivasi women. No report on how far that scheme has been carried out was available at the time of writing. The court also said the character of Matheran as a pedestrian hill station must be maintained as far as possible. UNESCO’s entry says the road from Neral ends at Aman Lodge and that no motorised road vehicles go beyond it.

Where it stands with UNESCO

India submitted the line on 15 April 2014 as an extension to the Mountain Railways of India, together with the Kangra Valley Railway. The Mountain Railways of India are inscribed as three lines, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in 1999, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway in 2005 and the Kalka-Shimla Railway in 2008. A tentative-list entry is a notice of intent, not an inscription, so Matheran is a candidate and not yet part of the World Heritage property. UNESCO’s entry notes that Neral is the interchange with the broad-gauge main line from Mumbai.