[8] Owing to lack of maintenance, Royapuram railway station building was degraded to a dilapidated condition over the decades.

[11] In 2005, the building was refurbished at an estimated cost of ₹ 3.5 million and was re-opened to the public on 2 October 2005 by the then union minister of state for railways, R. Velu.

[12] The Justice Padmanabhan committee, constituted by the Tamil Nadu state government, has identified the station as among the 800 heritage structures.

[15] In the early 1840s, about 15 years after Stephenson's steam engine undertook that historic Stockton–Darlington journey with its passenger coach, laying of a railway line in South India was discussed in London.

Royapuram was selected as the location for the new station as it was on the edge of a settlement of British traders and natives near Fort St.

[13] The first train, manufactured by Simpson and Company, started its journey with the Governor and 300 European people from Royapuram to Walajapet and a stately dinner was arranged in Ambur.

The second train carried Indian invitees to a shorter distance till "Triveloor" (the present day Thiruvallur).

Now and then too, a hearty laugh broke forth when in passing some pasture ground, the lazy cattle, startled by the rushing shriek of the train, flew frantically away, sometimes followed by the scared herdsman himself, who, thinking that the fiery-fiend whom he saw approaching might crush him also, took to his heels with all his speed.William Adelpi Tracey designed the heritage building of the Royapuram Railway station.

[18] According to the journal, Captain Barnett Fort described the rooms in the Royapuram station as being "very elegant and most superbly furnished with handsome punkahs & c." Governor Lord Harris, in his speech, congratulated the Madras Railway company, its manager Major Jenkins and all who had worked on the railway and said that the cost of £5,500 a mile was well worth the investment and looked forward to equally expeditious completion of the additional 450 miles of track to the west coast, a little south of Calicut.

[22] In 2006, the Southern Railway planned to lease a portion of the terminus to the corporate sector for developing cement and fertilizer depots.

[19] The foundation stone for the electric loco shed, which will be the Southern Railway's third one after Arakkonam and Erode, was laid on 25 January 2007.

[24] Southern Railway, which initially planned to make the station a hub for freight operations,[25] has now started a feasibility study to convert the heritage structure into a passenger terminal.