Officials say the train will help the troubled region, but many Kashmiris see it as a tool to entrench the Indian government’s control.

Passengers emphasised that the Katra-Srinagar Vande Bharat, which takes less than three hours for a 190km trip, would reorient travel between Kashmir and the rest of India

The world’s highest railway bridge, an ambitious piece of engineering across a mountain valley in Kashmir, was opened Friday by Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi, just weeks after a deadly tourist massacre in the Himalayan region sparked a brief conflict with neighboring Pakistan.