Later, the portion of BNR stretching from Howrah to Visakhapatnam in the South, Howrah to Nagpur in the Central area and upto Katni in the North Central Region were seperated from Eastern Railway and formed as “South Eastern Railway” with effect from 1st August 1955.

After redistribution and construction of new lines over a period of time, Eastern Railway as on 30^th September 2002 was stretched over 4245.61 kilometres.

On 01-10-2002, three divisions viz. Dhanbad, Mughalsarai and Danapur have been separated from Eastern Railway to create new East Central Railway zone with headquarters at Hazipur. Thus, Eastern Railway now consists of 2414 Route Kilometres spread over four divisions viz. Sealdah, Howrah, Asansol and Malda.

The Divisional Headquarters and the States served by these four Divisions are shown as under :

Sl. No.	Name of Division and Headquarters	Route Kilometer	States Served
01	Sealdah	683 + 27 (NG)	West Bengal
02	Howrah	652 + 106 (NG)	West Bengal and Jharkhand
03	Asansol	493	West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand.
04	Malda	453	West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand.

1.2 The area served by Eastern Railway is important to the economy of the country, as apart from serving the most densely populated region in the country, this Railway serves the area rich in minerals, agriculture and industry.

1.3 This Railway has three major Workshops situated at Jamalpur for POH of wagons (4478 Vehicle Unit) and diesel locomotives (76 VU); manufacturing of wagons (77 nos./annum) and 140 ton cranes(5 nos./annum), tower-wagons and whiting jacks; Liluah for POH of coaching (2808 VU) & freight (1690 VU) vehicles and Kanchrapara - for POH of electric locomotives (74 nos./annum), EMU stock (912 VU) and coaching vehicles.

1.4 This Railway has 1308 route kilometres electrified on 25 KV AC traction out if a total of 2414 route kilometres.

1.5 Eastern Railway extends to Bangaladesh border in the East upto Lalgola, Benapole and Gede, Malda and Kiul in the North, Namkhana near Ganga Sagar in the South and Asansol and Jhajha in the West.

1.6 Starting from Howrah, the main line of Eastern Railway runs 221 kms. to Sitarampur from where it takes two directions towards Delhi, one via Patna and other via Dhanbad – Gaya. Both these lines converge again at Mughalsarai Station of E. C. Rly.

1.7 To serve the long distance passenger traffic, the Railway operates a large no. of fast long distance Mail/Express trains, the pride of place being occupied by Rajdhani Express, which was introduced for the first time on Indian Railways between Howrah and Delhi over Eastern and Northern Railways in 1969.

1.8 On the suburban front, Howrah and Sealdah divisions of Eastern Railway are catering to the needs of large portion of Greater Kolkata suburban passengers except those on the sections of South Eastern Railway system. Most of the suburban routes are electrified.

1.9 Eastern Railway has also been the pioneer in introducing Diesel Multiple Units service for the first time in the country. To meet the requirements of suburban passengers, this service was introduced in those sections which are not electrified.

1.10 On the electrified Routes Mainline Electrical Multiple Units have also been introduced for passenger services in Non-suburban areas. This service is widely appreciated by the commuters.

1.11 Eastern Railway has been one of the major Railways. Before creation of E C Rly., this Railway used to load about 80 Million Tonnes of freight every year which was about 19% of the total loading of Indian Railways. With bifurcation, the originating loading has now become about 44.5 Million Tonnes in 2007-2008.

1.12 At present, out of the total originating traffic of Eastern Railway, coal constitutes about 78%. Stone loading also forms a major constituent of freight traffic. The major Power Houses in eastern India (NTPC-2440 MW, CESC-975 MW, WBSEB-1590 MW, DVC-840 MW), two major Steel plants at  Durgapur & Burnpur  & three major cement plants are served by Eastern Railway

1.13 Apart from the major commodities mentioned above, Eastern Railway also loads and carries Stone from Pakur and Jamalpur, Cement from Durgapur and host of other merchandise including Jute, Tea, Textile, Automobiles etc. at various stations.

1.14 The oil installations at Rajbandh and Budge-Budge, fertiliser plants at Durgapur and the huge industrial complexes at Asansol, Durgapur, Chittaranjan, Burnpur and industrial suburbs of Kolkata and Howrah are also served by this Railway.