As Mumbai's commuters look forward to travelling in air-conditioned local trains, today marks 95 years since the first electric passenger train ran on the Indian Railways. Just as passengers vie for the AC train, they waited eagerly to board a train that offered a clean — smokeless — journey then. The first electric passenger train ran from the Bombay Victoria Terminus (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Mumbai) to Kurla, a distance of 16 km, in 1925 on February 3 on the Harbour line.

Central Railway officials said they intend to commemorate the day by flagging off a special old-style local train between Mumbai CSMT and Kurla today. Records with Central Railway state that the first electric local train had four cars and was flagged off by Sir Leslie Wilson, the then governor of Bombay.