The first railway line in the old Mysore Area was from Bangalore to Madras (Broad-guage), laid by the Madras Railway Company and was opened for traffic in August 1864. In 1877-78, construction work of another important section, Bangalore-Mysore Metre - gauge line of about 138 km long was taken up and completed in stages and commissioned in February 1882 by spending a sum of Rs. 55.48 lakhs. The Metre - gauge section between Bangalore to Tumkur was started in October 1882 and about 69 km line was opened for traffic in 1884. Later, it extended to Gubbi (18 km) in December 1884. The Southern Mahratta Railway, undertook the construction work of Harihara-Birur and Birur-Gubbi sections and both these sections were opened for traffic in 1889. As a result,direct link was established between Pune-Bangalore via Harihara. 
The Birur-Shimoga-Bidare line having a distance of about 64 km. was constructed by the State itself in 1899. This line linked Shimoga with the Bangalore-Harihara sections. For speedy execution of the works, State Railway Construction Department was set up in June 1912. The Mysore-Arasikere Metre-gauge line of 165 km taken for construction in 1916 was completed and commissioned in 1918. Due to the keen interest taken by the State in developing the railway network, the total length of the railway line rose from 657 km in 1911-12 to 913 km in 1923-24. Later Birur-Shimoga line was extended in stages upto Talguppa (1940), a distance of about 161 km.
The Birur-Shimoga-Bidare line having a distance of about 64 km. was constructed by the State itself in 1899. This line linked Shimoga with the Bangalore-Harihara sections. For speedy execution of the works, State Railway Construction Department was set up in June 1912. The Mysore-Arasikere Metre-gauge line of 165 km taken for construction in 1916 was completed and commissioned in 1918. Due to the keen interest taken by the State in developing the railway network, the total length of the railway line rose from 657 km in 1911-12 to 913 km in 1923-24. Later Birur-Shimoga line was extended in stages upto Talguppa (1940), a distance of about 161 km.
In Gulbarga area, the Raichur-Sholapur section was laid during 18611871, to connect Bombay and Madras Presidencies. Another Broad-gauge line, passing from Wadi-Secunderbad via Chitapur and Sedam (43 km in Gulbarga district) was commissioned for traffic in 1874 and a vital link was established between Hyderabad, Madras and Bombay. In 1885, the Metre - gauge track between Hubli and Hospet was laid to serve as a link between the two coasts. The Broad - gauge line of the Vikarabad-Parli-Baijnath section, runs through Bidar district for a distance of 78.73 km, started operating since 1932.
Dakshina Kannada had only 12.87 km railway track leading towards Madras before 1956. When the Hassan-Mangalore railway line opened for traffic in 1979, the length of the railway line in the district went up. The Pune-Harihara line traversing through Belgaum and Dharwad districts was laid in 1882 and completed during 1887. Goa was linked up with Londa in Belgaum district. Before 1951, the present Karnataka State was served by the then Madras and Southern Maratha Railway, the South Indian Railway, Mysore State Railway, Nizam's State Railway and Great Indian Peninsular Railway systems. In 1951, the Railways were taken over by the Central Government and Railway Zones were formed. The Southern Railway was formed on 14-4-1951 with its headquarters at Madras; and in October 1966 South-Central Zone, with its headquarters at Secunderabad was created.
At the time of Unification of the State in 1956, the length of Railway line was 2,595 km. Out of which Broad - gauge was 352 km, Metre - gauge 2,080 and narrow-gauge 163 km. The Indian Railways, have undertaken modernisation and many development programmes for the expansion of the railway network in the country. Under the uni-gauge programme, 178 km. metre-gauge track between Dharmavaram-Bangalore was converted into Broad - gauge and opened for traffic in January 1985. Similarly the Mysore-Bangalore Broad- gauge line of 138.25 km was opened for public traffic on 16th April 1993 by spending a sum of Rs. 134.26 crores. Workshop at Ashokapuram (Mysore) is being modified to handle Broad - gauge rolling stock. Some of the railway lines converted into Broad - gauge and opened for traffic are Bangalore Cily-Yeshwanthpur-Yelahanka (17.50 km), Bellary-Rayadurga (54 km), Bangalore-Tumkur-Arasikere-Shimoga (in stages completed) and Rayadurga-Chitradurga-Chikjajur. Electrification work of the Bangalore City-Jolarpet section was completed in 1992 and the first Electric Train was operated on 19th May 1992.
Broad gauging of 67.65 km between Hotgi and Bijapur is being completed and since May 1998, rails are on operation. The Bijapur-Gadag gauge conversion likely to be completed very shortly. The Mysore-Arasikere line conversion is also completed and put to traffic from 1998. Hassan-Mangalore gauge conversion is under progress and work upto Puttur (Mangalore side) and Sakleshpur (Hassan side) are completed and train service is made available.
The ambitious Konkan Railway Project for connecting Mangalore with Roha was opened for freight traffic in 1996. The Mangalore-Udupi line was started first and was extended to Kundapur in 1995. The 760 km long line was opened for passenger traffic in December 1996. As a result, the distance between Mangalore and Bombay was reduced by 1,200 km and Mangalore-Delhi by 800 km. In 1998 (31-3-98) the total length was 3270 km. of which Broad - gauge is 2706 & Metre-gauge 564. The South Western Railway Zone was newly commissioned in October 2002 and Bangalore was made its headquarters. But after Public Protest in North Karnataka, its Headquarters was shifted to Hubli. The track doubling work between Bangalore and Kuppam has been completed and dedicated to the country in 2004. As on March 31st 2004, Karnataka had a total Railway route length of 3,270 km of which 2,761 km are of Broad - gauge and the remaining 509 km are of Metre - gauge line. There were 354 railway stations in the state.
At present, excluding the few sections like Puttur-Sakleshpur, Gadag-Bijapur, Ashokpuram-Chamarajanagar and Shimoga-Talaguppa lines all other are Broad guage lines. Likewise no Narrow guage lines are operating in the State. As a result, today, except Kodagu, all other Districts in the State have the railway line passing through their jurisdictions and the railways are planning to implement the long-standing demand for Mysore-Madikeri rail line. Hubli-Ankola line is also being planned. The Bangalore-Mysore route has been taken for laying double track in phases, In the first phase, double line laying work is proposed upto Ramanagar and the work is being under progress. The laying of new railway line between Bangalore and Shravanabelagola, under progress is likely to be completed by March 2006. A new survey is being conducted to connect Bangalore with Chamarajnagar via, Kanakapura, Malvalli and Kollegal. Amidst all these, the long pending rail route connecting Chamarajanagar with Erode needs an early attention.
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