On Time and In Time

This unique train arrived safely, quietly and without unnecessary fanfare at Lhasa's new clean and glistening station. It wasn't on time though I must report. It was at least a minute early. Now there's a lesson to many rail services around the world. Britain may want to take note.

Travel nearly 48 hours across thousands of miles of inhospitable and difficult terrain and still roll into the station with more than a minute to spare?

For passengers excited to be on this maiden rail voyage from Beijing to Lhasa there could hardly have been a more exhilarating end to the journey.

It's not entirely fair to say there was no ceremony. Smiling and delighted Tibetan officials, looking almost as thrilled as I felt after the historic trip, hastened to hang a a hada -- a white Tibetan scarf of welcome -- around the necks of arriving journalists.

I waited to be hit by altitude sickness in a city lying at a height of more than 3,600 metres. Instead, it was the changes in the city and not the lack of oxygen that took my breath away at once. Dark streets I remembered from previous visits were lit with street lamps, neon signs advertised restaurants and nightclubs. On Medicine Hill, named for its past as a site of monasteries dedicated to traditional health care, the Eiffel Tower-like communications mast was lit up in bright red neon. The Potala Palace loomed behind it in the dusk, a huge dark maroon and white monument to the ancient Buddhist history of Lhasa.

Daylight could not come soon enough to get a glimpse of a city that has lured the curious, the faithful and the intrepid for centuries.

I still wonder what changes will be wrought by the railway. But would-be visitors may relish a travel option that allows them to gain a sense of Lhasa's remoteness, to gaze at the scenery and to arrive on time.