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Construction of New Hybrid Rail line in Nevaras commences
New Line will feature both passenger and freight rail between Nevaras
Nevaras City, Duchy of Nevaras
August 15, 5674


Bridge Construction over the Nevaras River has commenced in 4 year project

The dream of connecting Nevaras City to the Bong Plateau has been a long standing goal of the Duchy Government of Nevaras. Since Nevaran Rail was completed hundreds of years ago, connecting Nevaras City and the Rail Vrassa to Vilbin in the Central Valley, the plan was always to eventually connect to the tourist and mining regions on the high central plateau. Those plans have been innagurated now, as construction of the first span of the Nevaran River Bridge in Nevaras City has begun. The link will connect the Ducal Seat to Bong City.

"We selected Bong City because that is both the County Seat, and the main tourist and passenger destination in the County," said project manager Peter Wallace, of Nevaran Rail. "It's the primary transit hub in the region and its the primary population center. We had originally intended to follow the highway, but the issue in the route from Maridon to Bong City was the grade: It was too steep for maglev train. So er ended up selecting a longer, but gentler slope along the Grand River Valley and then arriving from the north." Walace said that the elevation of Nevaras City is just around 485 feet above Sea Level, while Bong City sits about 2200 feet higher. "The northern route is the only really practical route for the train."

The route will contain both high speed passenger Maglev, and terrestrial Electric cargo tracks side by side. "The Pong Plateau contains the Nevaran Iron Range," said Wallace. "Most of that raw ore travels by hopper car to Gran City, where it is smelted into half ton raw iron ingots and then is transported by truck to Sulari. The process is arduous and expensive, and this will cut the time and cost for moving iron off the plateau significantly." Wallace said the process will now involve bringing the ingots from Gran City to Bong City, transferring them to rail in Bong and shipping them to Eshar, and then loading them onto freight ship to Sulari. It will increase activity at the Port of Eshar, and because shipments will be larger by rail from Bong City, energy, labor and time costs will be greatly reduced, not to mention wear and tear and annual loss of life on the difficult I-2 Pass via Lhasa."

Construction of the link is expected to be completed by 5679. "Completion of the bridge over the Nevaras River is the first step," said Wallace. "We hope to drop the pylons across the river next summer, and then begin laying track westward along the Valley. This is a fairly complicated geographical and engineering feat, but once it is done, our Duchy will experience a pretty major uptick in is travel, tourism and economics." Wallace said the construction is being paid by a major grant from the Ministry of Infrastructure. "We're looking at a cost of over ₭200 Million, 70% which is being provided by the Imperial Government, and the remaining 30% by Nevaran public and private investment. The project will create an additional 3500 jobs over the next four years, with 1450 permanent full time jobs to maintain the line."

Wallace says there is no plan to expand the passenger line further into the Plateau. "Cost benefit analysis breaks down south and west of Bong City, given that cost per mile dramatically increases, while there is not population to support additional track and train." Additional cargo track will likely be laid between gran City and Bong City within the next twenty years to pick up the ore smelting operations.

@TheRepublic