Sri Lanka’s Queen of Jaffna back on track - in pictures

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  Sri Lankan labourers work to put the finishing touches to the Jaffna railway station on Sunday October 12, a day ahead of its formal reopening. Ishara S Kodikara / AFP Photo

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  Sri Lankan ethnic Tamils take pictures in front of the train Queen of Jaffna after it arrived at Jaffna. Eranga Jayawardena / AP Photo

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  President Rajapaksa waves from a train travelling from Pallai to Jaffna. Ishara S Kodikara / AFP Photo

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  Ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka board the decorated train, 24 years after it was suspended because of the country’s civil war. Eranga Jayawardena / AP Photo

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  Schoolchildren welcome Sri Lanka’s president to the rebuilt Jaffna railway station. Ishara S Kodikara / AFP Photo

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  Sri Lankan ethnic Tamils gather on the station platforms. Yarl Devi, as it is known in Tamil, was once a popular mode of transport between the ethnic Tamil-majority north and the Sinhala-majority south. Eranga Jayawardena / AP Photo

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  President Rajapaksa shares a lighter moment with a person standing on the platform. Eranga Jayawardena / AP Photo

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  In January 1985, rebels blew up the train, killing 22 soldiers and 11 civilians and wounding 44 other people, in the single-biggest attack on the military at the time. The train was shut down in 1990 as rebels stepped up attacks in the north to push for their own independent state. Eranga Jayawardena / AP Photo

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  ‘This is not just a train journey but a bridge between north and south,’ Mr Rajapaksa said on-board the train. Eranga Jayawardena / AP Photo

Cheered by tens of thousands of people, a train decorated with banana plants and colourful flower garlands arrived in Sri Lanka’s northern Tamil heartland on Monday, 24 years after the “Queen of Jaffna” was suspended because of the civil war.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa bought a ticket and boarded the train for the last 43 kilometres of the journey and opened several railway stations along the way.

Yarl Devi as it is known in Tamil, was once a popular mode of transport between the ethnic Tamil-majority north and the Sinhala-majority south.

It was scaled back in 1990 because of the heightening civil war between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The war raged from 1983 to 2009 when Sri Lankan troops crushed the rebels.

“This is not just a train journey but a bridge between north and south,” Mr Rajapaksa said on-board the train.

“Today what is left to us is to win over hearts and minds, healing of minds. I think this train journey today will help connect hearts and minds once again.”