COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The “Queen of Jaffna,” a once-popular train linking the ethnic Tamil’s northern heartland to the rest of Sri Lanka before a bloody civil war cut the link 24 years ago, chugs back into service this coming week, reinforcing the government’s authority in a region once controlled by Tamil rebels.

For the old, it is a nostalgic piece of the Indian Ocean island nation’s past. For the young, the train represents something novel and opens opportunities to explore the north. For the central government, the resumption of the “Yarl Devi,” as it is known in Tamil, marks a step toward restoring national unity five years after the Tamil separatists were defeated to end the long war.