Due to the nature of
Gate Town as a space-based settlement, it can be very hard to get to a different part of the city quickly without boarding some form of spaceship. The time consuming nature of docking procedures and maneuvering in crowded space led to a demand for alternate methods of rapid transportation within Gate Town, which was partially answered with the construction of a monorail system called the Gate Town Loop Line.
The Loop line offers three levels of service:
- General trains are low-cost, low-frequency, high-occupancy trains operating on a fixed schedule.
- Group trains are smaller medium-cost trains which are automatically scheduled based on demand, typically at higher frequencies than the general trains.
- Private pods are a luxury on-demand service typically only accessible to corporate executives.
Stations
Stations are partially separated between the different services. On stations available to all services, group trains typically use a separated section of the general station, while private pods depart from a separate station; for stations only accessible by group and private services, the two services use the same building but are completely separated after the entrance.
Stations not served by the general service are frequently added or removed based on demand by a fully automatic fleet of construction drones.
Trains
The trains used on the Loop Line employ a magnetic levitation monorail guidance and propulsion system for their primary function, but are equipped with maneuvering thrusters that allow them to leave the track. This functionality is used at a small number of stations to allow the track to be at an angle that would make station construction difficult as well as to move trains inside maintenance depots more easily.
The interior of trains depends on the service level, however all trains feature standard environmental controls and artificial gravity. General trains are very bare bones with mostly standing space and only few seats. Group trains feature fully forward-facing seats, while private pods are essentially a smaller version of group trains with the addition of customizable environmental settings.
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