Salem railway division

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Salem railway division is one of six divisions under the Southern Railway zone of Indian Railways. Its headquarters is in Salem, Tamil Nadu. The division started on 14 November 2006, formed from parts of the Palakkad and Tiruchirappalli divisions, and was opened by Union Minister Arjun Singh and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.

Coimbatore Junction is the busiest station in the division and accounts for about 45% of the revenue, handling around 35,000 passengers daily. Other important stations are Salem, Erode, Karur, and Tiruppur. Erode handles most crew changes. Tiruppur is a key freight station for agricultural goods, textiles and machinery.

The division operates entirely in Tamil Nadu and covers 15 districts with a total route length of 862 km. District headquarters include Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode, Salem, Karur and Namakkal. There are electric and diesel locomotive sheds at Erode, which supply locomotives to several zones. A Meter Gauge loco shed is located at Coonoor for the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR). Maintenance pit lines for passenger coaches are at Coimbatore, Erode, Mettupalayam and Coonoor.

Salem division handles many long-distance and interstate trains. It also includes the Nilgiri Mountain Railway heritage line, which runs from Mettupalayam to Ooty. Between Mettupalayam and Coonoor, the line uses a rack-and-pinion system to climb steep grades. The NMR is the only rack railway in India. Its gradient ranges from about 1 in 24.5 (4.08%) to a maximum of 1 in 12 (8.33%). The NMR still uses some manual Edmondson tickets for the Udhagamandalam–Mettupalayam journey to protect its World Heritage status, while most bookings can be done online.

Medical facilities in the division include two sub-divisional hospitals at Erode and Podanur, and four health units at Coonoor, Mettupalayam, Salem and Karur. There are plans to add a multi-specialty sub-divisional hospital at Erode.

Salem station is set to be upgraded under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, with 45 crore rupees allocated for renovation. The scheme covers upgrades of many stations in Tamil Nadu, and Salem is part of it. There are also plans to potentially transfer Salem division to the South Coast Railway zone in the future.