Jalpaiguri railway station

During the British period all connections from southern parts of Bengal to North Bengal were through the eastern part of Bengal. From 1878, the railway route from Kolkata, then called Calcutta, was in two laps. The first lap was a 185 km journey along the Eastern Bengal State Railway from Calcutta Station (later renamed Sealdah) to Damookdeah Ghat on the southern bank of the Padma River, then across the river in a ferry and the second lap of the journey. A 336 km metre-gauge line of the North Bengal Railway linked Saraghat on the northern bank of the Padma to Siliguri via Jalpaiguri.[1]

The 1.8 km-long Hardinge Bridge across the Padma came up in 1912. In 1926 the metre-gauge section north of the bridge was converted to broad gauge, and so the entire Calcutta–Siliguri route became broad gauge.[1] The route thus ran: Sealdah–Ranaghat–Bheramara–Hardinge Bridge–Iswardi–Santahar–Hili–Parabtipur–Nilphamari–Haldibari-Jalpaiguri-Siliguri.

With the partition of India, this track got trisected. The through route was formally closed after the India–Pakistan War in 1965.[2]

The Siliguri Junction–Haldibari, part of the original broad gauge Calcutta–Siliguri Junction track via Hardinge Bridge, got delinked from the trunk route in 1947. As all the other tracks in the area were metre gauge, it was converted from broad gauge to metre gauge in the late forties. When New Jalpaiguri railway station came up, the line was extended to New Jalpiguri. When broad-gauge lines were laid in the area, it was reconverted to broad gauge and now functions as the Haldibari–New Jalpaiguri line.[1] In 2021, after the inauguration of the Mitali Express and the re-opening of the erstwhile Haldibari-Chilahati line, Jalpaiguri residents hope for the re-opening of the old Calcutta route.

Effective political lobbying by the Siliguri politician Ashok Bhattacharya led to the establishment of a new railway station New Jalpaiguri, which effectively serves the city of Siliguri, although it is located in the district of Jalpaiguri. The railway station was strategically named New Japaiguri as a bargaining chip to allay the residents of Jalpaiguri. The new station at New Jalpaiguri was not actually a necessity, up-gradation of existing railway stations at Raninagar Jalpaiguri Junction railway station, or the Jalpaiguri Road railway station would have served the same purpose. New Jalpaiguri was created strictly for further elevating the strategic importance of Siliguri, a town far smaller than Jalpaiguri in area as well as population. As a result, the residents of Jalpaiguri have been disadvantaged over the last few decades, as they have to travel to Siliguri for most long-distance trains, which don't even halt at the Jalpaguri town railway station or the Jalpaiguri Road railway station. This has ultimately led to the present obscurity of the Jalpaiguri town railway station. Even the much-hyped Mitali Express, which is scheduled to run from Pohela Boisakh 2022, doesn't have a halt at Jalpaiguri town railway station, which has further irked the residents of Japaiguri.

Jalpaiguri railway station has the following amenities: computerized reservation center, waiting rooms, retiring rooms, book stall and food stall.

• Departures from Jalpaiguri railway station
• Jalpaiguri travel guide from Wikivoyage