The West Central Railway is one of the 16 zones of Indian Railways, created in April 2003. It was also a private railway company of former British India, which was later nationalized.

The former West Central Railway (WCR) was founded in British India in 1924. It began transporting military goods for the British armed forces in 1928, when the railway from Bombay to Poona was finished. In the late 1930s, the "Indian Railway of Bombay" started passenger transportation, but as war began, these efforts were suspended. The private company was taken over by the Royal Army in 1940.

The "Railway of Bombay" did not restart its business until India became independent in 1947. On November 5, 1951, it was split into the Western Railway (WR) and Central Railway (CR). In the late 1960s three other railway lines were built, leaving Bombay in different directions, reaching Ahmadabad in the North, Nagpur in the East, and Hyderabad in the southeast.

The Western Railway is headquartered in Bombay Central and the Central Railway in Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, formerly Victoria Terminus. The CR is the largest Indian rail network in terms of passenger load. Both the services run suburban rail servies in Bombay.

In April 2003, the West Central Railway was reconstituted from the Jabalpur and Bhopal divisions of CR and the reorganized Kota division of WR. It is headquartered at Jabalpur. The new West Central Railway serves northern Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states, southern Uttar Pradesh state, and northwestern Rajasthan state. It includes portions of the former Indian Midland Railway and the Gwalior state railways.