Minecraft:Proposal for a unified rail system
Sporksland has several long-distance rail systems that use automated switching. This makes traveling from one city to another on those systems very convenient. But these systems are not connected to each other with automated switching. This makes traveling from one metropolitan area to another require stopping, getting out of the cart, picking up the right ticket for the next leg of the trip, going to the right platform, then launching a cart. In today's society that expects everything to be super easy, this is just unacceptable.
The goal of this project is to connect all of Sporksland's long-distance rail systems together as a single automatically switched system.
Mechanism
Passengers will continue to use the existing systems' mechanisms to direct them from where they enter each system to either their destination or to the station where they will transfer to the next system. In addition, they will carry a transfer ticket which will cause them to be diverted to a switching system instead of a station's platform, and that switching system will in turn divert them onto the next system. This ticket will be formated as 'TX:XXX>YYY' where XXX is the three letter abbreviation of the system they are coming from and YYY is the abbreviation for the system to divert them to.
Switches
Malaclypse
Malaclypse Station will host the switch between the Canal, Seaside, and Mal-Rav systems.
The Mal-Rav system's incoming transfer passengers will present their transfer tickets at Upper Chaos then be diverted from the Mal-Rav Express at Upper Chaos onto the Blue Line. They will then present the ticket again before Malaclypse Station to be diverted from the Blue Line to the switch. Transfer passengers from the switch to the Mal-Rav Express will present their tickets before Malaclypse then be diverted onto the switch then to the Blue Line, and they will present their tickets again at Upper Chaos to go to the Mal-Rav Express.
The connectors between the Blue Line and the Mal-Rav Express can go under Upper Chaos Station and connect to the Mal-Rav Express on its incline.
Because of limited space, the switch will have to go in Bureaucracy, and the Purple Line platform will need to be moved from the south face of the southwest corner to the west face of that corner.
New Seattle
New Seattle Station will host the switch between the Canal, Foxdale, and ACR systems. The switch will go on a new third level under the existing station.
Riverside and Bay City
Riverside Station will host a switch between the Seaside System and the ACR System. It will be built either under or next to the existing station.
Transfer passengers from the Seaside System will need to be diverted towards Riverside at Bay City Station, and so will transfer passengers from from Riverside to the Seaside System.
Existing systems
These are the existing systems that can be connected.
Ancien Central Route (ACR)
This system includes the Ancien Central Route, which runs from Riverside to Nouvelle-Athènes, and the New Seattle Railroad, which runs from New Seattle Junction on the ACR in Mountain Home to New Seattle Station.
At New Seattle Station, the ACR system has transfers for the Foxdale Line and the Canal System (with no direct connection to its Finejo line). It also has transfers for the MORON system there.
At Gare Centrale d'Ancien, the ACR will eventually have transfers for the Foxdale Line. It has a connection to the Foxdale Airport Line.
The ACR is ticketed. Tickets are available to each station along the ACR and to New Seattle, though Riverside and Nouvelle-Athènes do not have tickets. Travellers are only stopped at stations along the ACR if they have a ticket for that station.
The New Seattle Junction sends all traffic from New Seattle that does not have a ticket to Mountain Home, and it sends all traffic from New Seattle with tickets towards Ancien. Passengers on the ACR are only diverted to New Seattle if they have tickets for New Seattle.
Canal-Finejo System (CAN)
This is two separate lines: the Canal Line from New Seattle to Malaclypse, and the Finejo Line from Espertio to Finejo.
All passengers on the Canal Line that do not have tickets are stopped at Finejo. Southbound traffic from Finejo without tickets will be diverted to the Finejo Line to Espertio. Northbound traffic from the Canal Line cannot be diverted to Espertio, and Finejo-bound traffic on the Finejo Line cannot be diverted southbound on the Canal Line.
Finejo Station effectively acts as a transfer point between the Canal Line and the Finejo Line.
At New Seattle Station, the Canal Line has transfers for the MORON system, the ACR, and the Foxdale Line.
At Malaclypse Station, the Canal Line has transfers to the ERIS system and the Seaside Line.
Seaside-Podge System (SEA)
This system has two lines: the Seaside Line, which runs from Malaclypse Station to Bay City Station, and the Podge Line, which runs from Podge to the Seaside Line at Triangle Junction.
Triangle Junction is ticketed such that traffic from Podge or Malaclypse without a ticket to the other will go though towards Bay City, and traffic from Bay City without a ticket to Podge will go to Malaclypse.
Malaclypse-Ravenhurst Express (MRE)
Also known as the Mal-Rav Express, this line runs from Upper Chaos to West Hodge. It has no junctions.