Read Chapter 34: — OPENING DAY

Opening day brought ministers, executives, media crews, families and too many speeches.

Daniel disliked ceremonies but understood their value. Infrastructure was technical during construction and political, social and emotional once it opened.

Passengers cared less about compaction depth than whether they could reach work, family and opportunity safely.

The first public service departed on time.

Maggie sat beside Graham.

Maya sat with Toby and Samir farther down the carriage.

Daniel stood until Maggie ordered him to sit.

“You’ve spent years building trains,” she said. “Try riding one.”

As the city fell away, the landscape opened into desert.

The corridor ran beside dunes that once moved across unfinished formation. Wind fences and stabilised shoulders flashed past the windows. Bridges crossed dry wadis. The tunnel swallowed the train for several minutes, then released it into sunlight.

Maggie reached for Graham’s hand inside the tunnel.

Daniel pretended not to notice.

At full speed the places that had consumed months of argument passed in seconds.

That was another strange truth of engineering.

The builder remembers every metre.

The passenger is supposed to forget all of it.