Argen-Vevari Line

"When we were taken to another world, I was expecting some amazing, cool, badass alien tech that puts anything us humans built to shame! But here we are...on a train."

-Juan

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The Argen-Vevari Line is a section of high speed rail that runs over 8600 kilometers between Barun-Deth, the capital city of Vefaria, and the mega city of Argen, far to the southeast. Originally rail lines like this were used to carry cargo from Vefaria's many factory cities down to the Space Elevator in Argen to be carried into space. This stopped after the Exodus and the abandonment of the factory cities.

The rail line is still used to carry passengers between the two cities as air travel on Collena isn't the safest way to travel. The roughly two day journey offers stunning views of the countryside and passes through locations like the Shattered Plains, Knife Ridge, and the Norli Vala and nearby sacred grove, one of the most important locations in several Regalti religions.

Argen-Vevari Line

Distance: 8,634km
Top Speed: 600km/h
Average Speed: 274km/h

Ride Time: 31 Hours
Total time With Stops: 56 hours

Major Stops

Barun Deth

Knife Ridge

Kali

Sefali

Corya

Norli Vala

Argen, The Silver City

Route Map

Why Rail is used

Skyshells and Cloud Flowers. These two groups of animals and plants are the reason why high altitude air travel is less common on the planet Collena. It isn't advisable to fly between one and two thousand meters in elevation due to the concentration of skyshells, making take offs and landings dangerous. If a plane hits one of them, the entire front of the aircraft might be obliterated. Skyshells did very nearly become extinct, but they are a protected species now. Cloud Flowers have a tendency to clog air intakes in reciprocal engines and turbine engines alike. They also exist at altitudes up to fifty thousand meters. Because of how unpredictable superblooms are, a plane could be flying into a death trap and the pilots would never know.

Even if the sky meadows were taken care of, wiped out, burned away, and the skies above Collena were cleared to allow easier air travel, there is one final issue to contend with. Many of the mountain ranges covering the Planet Collena are highly magnetic. These signals interfere with the sensitive sensors onboard most planes, as well as any space craft with a pilot brave enough to fly into Collena's atmosphere. When flying above these mountain ranges, electronics have to be mostly turned off and flying has to be done manually.

There are many parts of the world where Cloud Flowers and Skyshells don't exist, and there are no mountain ranges to get in the way of flying over. In these areas air travel is much more common. For everywhere else, much slower travel by rail is used.