MUMBAI: The Deccan Queen Express, India's first luxurious train, celebrated 92 years in service on June 1. The train connects Maharashtra's two biggest cities, Pune and Mumbai. "This train is the only one of its sort on Indian Railways, and it will now run with LHB carriages starting June 22," Central Railway's general manager Anil Kumar Lahoti told reporters. The introduction of the 'Deccan Queen' between Maharashtra's two prime towns, Pune and Mumbai, on June 1, 1930, was a watershed moment in the Great Indian Peninsula Railway's, the progenitor of the Central Railway's, history.

This was the first deluxe train to serve two major cities in the region, and it was appropriately named after Pune, widely known as the "Queen of Deccan" (Dakkhan ki Rani). The train was initially inaugurated with two rakes of seven coaches, one painted silver with scarlet mouldings and the other royal blue with gold lines. The initial rakes' coach underframes were made in England, while the coach bodies were built in the GIP Railway's Matunga Workshop.

Initially, the Deccan Queen only had first and second class accommodations. On January 1, 1949, the first class was eliminated, and the second class was redesigned as the first class, which lasted until June 1955, when the third class was introduced for the first time on this train. From April 1974 forward, this was re-designated as a second class. The original rakes' coaches were replaced in 1966 with Integral Coach Factory, Perambur, anti-telescopic steel-bodied integral coaches.

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