The year was 1868. The Oudh & Rohilkand Railway (O&RR) company had built only one railway line by then. The section was between Lucknow and the left bank of the Ganges ( Ganga) at Kanpur.
There were plans to extend the network all over United Provinces ( as Uttar Pradesh was known then). The construction of these lines were done to connect several towns such as Lucknow, Cawnpore (Kanpur), etc., with Delhi, Calcutta, (Kolkata), and the North West Frontier ( now in Pakistan).
Prominent lines built included the following: Benares ( Varanasi) – Lucknow loop, Allahabad ( now Prayagraj)- Fyzabad ( later Faizabad now known as Ayodhya Cantt) branch line and the Moghalsarai-Lucknow-Saharanpur main line ( Mughalsarai is now named Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Jn. or DDU).
After the 38.24 miles long Akbarpur-Fyzabad section of the Benares-Lucknow loop was opened for traffic on June 10,1873, Ajodhya (as Ayodhya was then called) came into India’s railway map.
The progress of construction of the Benares Lucknow loop is shown in the table below:
| Name of Railway Company | Name of railway line | Origin-Destination | Section | Distance in miles | Date of Opening |
| Oudh & Rohilkand Railway ( O&RR) | Benares Lucknow loop | Benares- Lucknow | Benares Cantt- Shahganj via Zafarabad, Jaunpur | 56.03 | January 5,1874 |
| O&RR | Benares Lucknow loop | Benares- Lucknow | Shahganj-Bilwai | 7 | May 1,1874 |
| O&RR | Benares Lucknow loop | Benares- Lucknow | Bilwai -Malipur | 9 | April 18,1874 |
| O&RR | Benares Lucknow loop | Benares- Lucknow | Malipur-Akbarpur | 12 | March 2,1874 |
| O&RR | Benares Lucknow loop | Benares- Lucknow | Akbarpur-Fyzabad | 38.24 | June 10,1873 |
| O&RR | Benares Lucknow loop | Benares- Lucknow | Fyzabad-Barabanki | 61.97 | November 25, 1872 |
| O&RR | Benares Lucknow loop | Benares- Lucknow | Barabanki-Lucknow Block hut | 14.43 | April 1,1872 |
| O&RR | Akbarpur Tanda branch | Akbarpur- Tanda | Akbarpur to Tanda | 10.72 | October 28,1912 |
| Note- Oudh & Rohilkand Railway Company was merged with East Indian Railway Company On July 1,1925 |
Major bridges on the line included two on the river Gomti. The first one was just after Lucknow on the Lucknow -Barabanki section and the second was between Zafarabad and Jaunpur on the Benares-Shahganj section.
O&RR started line construction from the Lucknow end first connecting the Lucknow Block Hut-Barabanki section and then the Fyzabad- Barabanki section in 1872. The line was finally completed up to Benares Cantt with on May 1,1874 .
Dufferin Bridge
The biggest boost to this line came on October 1,1887 when the Dufferin Bridge over the Ganga at Varanasi was constructed. This was the lone major bridge on the Moghalsarai – Lucknow -Saharanpur main line via the Rae Bareli line. Trains towards Ajodhya took this line until Benares before joining the Benares-Lucknow loop.
With this the O&RR line connected the East Indian Railway ( EIR) main line at Moghalserai (now called DDU). This enabled O&RR’s connection to Calcutta, Delhi and Patna via the EIR.
The Dufferin bridge was a part of the Moghalserai- Lucknow – Saharanpur main line via Benares, Partabgarh ( now Pratapgarh), Raebareli, Lucknow, Bareilly and Moradabad. Prior to construction of this bridge passengers alighted on the right bank of the Ganga crossed the river by a ferry before taking another train towards Benares.
The bridge was renamed as Malviya bridge after it was re-girdered to accommodate the second line and opened as a double line bridge on December 5,1947. The following are the line opening dates of the Moghalsarai- Lucknow main line:-
| Name of Railway Company | Name of railway line | Origin-Destination | Section | Distance in miles | Date of Opening |
| Oudh & Rohilkand Railway ( O&RR) | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Moghalsaral-mile 3.98 | 3.98 | December 22, 1862 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Mile 3.98 to Kashi (Benares Ganges) station | 4.25 | October 1,1887 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Kashi (Benares Ganges) station to Benares Cantonment | 2.82 | June 18,1883 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Benares Cant -Raebareli via Janghai, Partabgarh | 138.78 | April 4,1898 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Raebareli-Lucknow | 48.68 | October 15, 1893 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Lucknow-Sandila | 30.24 | February 1,1872 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Sandila-Hardoi | 33 | July 15,1872 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Hardoi-Shahjahanpur | 39 | March 1, 1873 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Shahjahanpur-Pitambarpur | 32 | September 8,1873 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Pitambarpur-Bareilly | 13 | November 1,1874 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Bareilly to Mile 5 # | 5 | December 12,1873 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Mile 5 to Aonla | 11 | November 1,1873 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Aonla to Chandausi | 27 | June 10,1873 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Chandausi to Moradabad | 27.22 | October 28,1872 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Bareilly-Moradabad chord line via Rampur* | 56.07 | June 8,1894 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Moradabad- Nagina | 47.25 | October 8,1884 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Nagina-Najibabbad | 13.74 | April 1, 1885 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Najibabad-Saharanpur | 56.28 | January 1,1886 |
| O&RR | Branches on Bareilly Moradabad loop | Raja-ka-Sahaspur – Sambal Hatim Sarai | Raja-ka-Sahaspur – Sambal Hatim Sarai | 14.64 | June 25,1912 |
| O&RR | Branches on Bareilly Moradabad loop | Gajroula-Chandpur Siau | Gajroula-Chandpur Siau | 21.88 | June 7,1911 |
| O&RR | Branches on Bareilly Moradabad loop | Chandausi -Rajghat Narora | Chandausi -Rajghat Narora | 30.48 | October 28, 1872 |
| O&RR | Branches on Bareilly Moradabad loop | Rajghat Narora – Aligarh | Rajghat Narora – Aligarh | 30.12 | February 1, 1872 |
| *Trains were diverted via the chord line between Bareilly and Moradabad post its construction. Of this, 0.49 miles over Ramganga bridge (Moradabad) is of mixed gauge (5′ 6″ and 3’3 3/4″) | |||||
| # For 1.17 miles over Ramganga bridge (Bareilly) are of mixed gauge ( 5’6″ and 3’3 3/4″) |
The British Government acquired the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway Company effective January 1, 1889. Thirty-six years later, on July 1,1925, this company was merged with the East Indian Railway Company.
Neglect of the Benares-Lucknow loop
For decades post independence, this line between Benares-Lucknow via Ayodhya was neglected. It remained a single line diesel section with semaphore signalling till the year 2000.
The line was fully electrified recently prior to the introduction of Vande Bharat express between Gorakhpur and Lucknow. Doubling works between Barabanki – Zafarabad are being done on a war footing with several patches in the section already doubled.
Very soon the line is likely to be fully doubled and electrified.
End of Part 1
