Since 1883, when the first train steamed off from India's western port city of Bombay to Thane 30 miles away, Indian Rail has grown into the world's second-biggest railway network after China, spreading its tentacles from high in the northern Himalayas to the southern tip of the vast country.
Operating about 12,000 trains daily connecting 7,100 stations, Indian Rail carries over 13 million passengers daily. Its monthly timetable is one of the world's biggest and most complicated, and its massive budget is presented separately to parliament each year.
But railway officials concede that there is little if any emphasis on safety, despite nearly 300 rail accidents and mishaps each year.
"All major accident inquiries are forgotten within days of being ordered," admitted a senior railway official. But little is done to implement the changes and modernisation recommended, he said.
Over the last five years there have been at least two instances of trains travelling about 20 miles in northern India without a driver. He had either fallen out or jumped out en route. Fortunately, neither was involved in an accident, as they came to a stop having run out of steam.
Faulty and outdated signalling and track-switching equipment, the official said, had led to serious accidents, often with two trains being switched simultaneously on to the same line.
But negligence by railway employees accounts for about 43 per cent of accidents. And with newer and faster trains being introduced each year, the incidence increases.
Until yesterday's accident in the east, India's worst train disaster caused by human error - excluding one caused by a cyclone - happened four years ago, when 358 people died after an express train slammed into another which had stopped after hitting a cow near Firozabad, 170 miles east of Delhi.
And last November 210 people were killed when a speeding train rammed into a derailed express in the northern Punjab.
Overcrowded trains, often carrying twice their capacity with passengers spilling over from hot, stuffy carriages on to the roofs, and others hanging precariously from doors and windows, are just some of the hazards of rail travel, which is India's cheapest and most popular mode of transport.
In many remote regions, especially in eastern India, train travel is also the fastest mode of travel, as roads are either non-existent or little better than dirt tracks.
On many overnight routes, it is often impossible to even get to the toilet in second-class compartments, as they are packed tight with commuters crouching on the floor for the entire journey.
Often those wanting to get off at their destination are unable to do so, despite walking over masses of people. This causes them to pull the emergency chain, throwing schedules awry.
Tens of thousands of commuters travel free, especially in eastern Bihar state and neighbouring Bengal, where yesterday's rail accident took place, hopping on and off at will. These "ticketless travellers", whose numbers are growing each year, are not only a drain on the railway's over-stretched resources but are fast becoming a law and order problem in many regions.
Officials say many of them are members of criminal gangs which rob passengers with impunity.
The railway portfolio is always highly controversial. Over the years many a railway minister has used his powers to woo his constituency by introducing more frequent and faster trains and upgrading stations. This translates into jobs and ultimately into votes.
But such expansion has never translated into enhanced safety norms for rail operations.