The debate around the SilverLine, the proposed semi high-speed railway in Kerala, has reached a blind alley. If the project, funded partly by the State government, comes through, the 530-kilometre distance between Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram and its northern-most district Kasaragod could be covered in less than four hours. This journey takes at least 12 hours now. But many critics of the new railway question the very idea of high-speed travel in Kerala, arguing that there would not be enough riders. The State government, for its part, is yet to convince the people that the railway line can be a catalyst for a progressive transformation of Kerala’s economy.
It may be useful for Kerala to go over the experience of Japan in building the world’s first ever high-speed rail line, called the Shinkansen. In the 1950s, there were serious doubts about its viability, in a country that had been devastated by the Second World War. However, ever since its inauguration in 1964, Shinkansen has been a powerful agent and a symbol of Japan’ s economic resurgence.
