Highs and lows aboard SGR train from Nairobi to Suswa

Passengers aboard Standard Gauge Railway train during the launch of Phase 2A at Syokimau Railway Station in Nairobilast weeek. [David Njaaga,Standard]

It is a highly-controversial train route, one that has been criticised as "heading nowhere" and lacking economic sense.

Yet, last Wednesday, at the Nairobi terminus of the Standard Gauge Railway in Syokimau, the launch of Phase 2A of the SGR project, terminating 120.49 kilometres away in Naivasha, is an event that was treated with extreme seriousness and fanfare.