Kalistani Major History

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RailSul sticks to coast, Completes next stretch of Track
Construction challenged by coastal hill ranges, Bridge over Yoshimi River
Reynoldia, Suldanor
August 22, 5330


Bridge over Yoshimi adds 45 million KRB to RailSul's costs, delays line completion for 6 months

RailSul has announced that it has completed the line from Sulari to Reynoldia, Suldanor, via the minor Port and processing center of Sweet Port enroute. The three cities are now connected by 370 Miles of additional track designed for use RailSul's High speed Maglev trains and can take 120 passengers an hour between Sulari and Reynoldia, completing the journey in just over an hour and 15 minutes.

"It is in longer distances that we will begin seeing the real benefits of high speed elevated magnetic trains," said this leg's project manager Robert Givens. "The price for the round trip ticket is still a bit steep: about 435 KRB for a two way pass between Reynoldia and Sulari, but like the Dana-Sulari line, we expect to see that price dropping significantly over the next couple years, as more people use the train and private investment especially is recouperated. As for now, the trains are running, and three leave the station each way in an hour, so things appear to be on schedule."

This leg has been three years in the building. "Sulari benefits from a lot of flat land," said Givens, "But there were a couple challenges we faced which required engineering expertise as well as explosives. We had to cut our way through some tricky spots in the Suldanor Hills, which present a natural barrier and watershed in the center of Suldanor. That took us several months of crawling. Another major challenge we had was that there were almost no suitable places to build a bridge across the Yoshimi at Reynoldia. The soil there is so soft and bog like that the bedrock lies a long way below the surface. In addition, Reynoldia is built on a bank that is significantly higher than the plain on the north side of the river, and so we had to deal with dramatic increase in elevation upon crossing the river. A solution we came up with was to sink 35 pylons into the bedrock on the Yoshimi River's North bank, and gradually elevate the track to the height of Reynoldia over several miles beyond that. We built primarily through farmland and flood plain, so we didn't run into a lot of property issues. It was a solution that allowed us to construct the shortest bridge possible across the Yoshimi and not pay a ton of money for it."

Departing Sulari Station as a new maglev train arrives, this train is enroute to Sweet Port

Givens said the price tag for this leg of construction came in at about 21.2 Billion KRB of public money and another 14.1 Bn in Private investment. "We're still at just over 98 million KRB per mile of track," said Givens. "I'd like to see that number fall as we get better at this. We are not going to compromise on quality, of course, but I think that as we build more and more track, we will discover things that are unnecessarily costing us money, and cut those things out of the budgets. We can build the train cars out of less expensive materials, I think, and look for cheaper sources of materials to build the tracks with as we move into other Districts. When we get into Odufaray, we will utilizing pre-fabricated bridges, and we will take the expertise we gained here going through hills to improve efficiency and proficiency when we get to Vrassa which is almost all hills. But for now, we are not resting on our laurels: Yoshimi, the southern Terminus of Rail Sul is a mere 87 Miles away. We expect to complete that distance in a year and then we will have continuous local and express service between Yoshimi and Dana. And Reynoldia will serve as a hub of its own for the cities up the Yoshimi River. These are exciting times."

Givens also noted that RailSul is working on a new fuselage for train, a sleeker, more aerodynamic design that could theoretically improve speeds, and provide for a more comfortable ride. "Our current design is probably better suited for slower speeds," said Givens. "At high speeds, it tends to be quite loud, and decreases user satisfaction. It also is high enough profile that high winds can affect the smoothness of its transit. While not a safety issue, given the repellence of the magnets, it does cause the cars to rock more than they should, and we are required to keep people in their seats for safety. A new design that we are looking at will reduce a lot of that drag, and make our trains even more energy efficient than they already are."