Kalistani Major History

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Odufaray celebrates completion of Central Rail link between Dana and Senvias Vrassa
Delays and budget overages will slow further rail development in Odufaray
Senvias Vrassa
March 31, 5341


Central Rail arrives in Vrassa to hand project off to Vrassa Northern

The National Magnetic Levitation passenger line which envisions highspeed passenger transit from Yoshimi to Addisjah took one crucial step towards completion this week. With the opening of Senvias Central Station, the construction of Odufaray's portion of the National Railline has come to a successful conclusion. The opening of the station came after a series of unexpected delays and budget overages which will ensure that rail service in Odufaray is unlikely to expand within the District much further than completed track.

"Both Kluptoon and Vrassa Rivers both provided significant geographical challenges for the railroad," said Central Rail's spokesman Chad Bradley, when talking about the construction project in mainland Kalistan's central District. "The bedrock in the Kluptoon proved rather difficult to locate, which is a fact we have been long prepared for. What we did not anticipate was how deep we would have to sink pylons. When it proved too deep to construct without creating a significant ecological problem in the estuary, a whole new bridge had to be engineered, which did not rely on center pylons. The result is a beautiful suspension bridge, but re-engineering and then abandoning the work that had already been done not only added about 14 months to the project, but also added tens of millions of Rubles to the project. The Vrassa River was a whole other challenge, but that had to do more with currents and the need to eventually divert the whole river to build the bridge."

Another major increase in time and money was the desire to connect Springfield to the rail line. "In Suldanor, the track was more or less direct, and they are still going to be working for some time to connect major cities to hubs on the coast," said Bradley. "We decided at Gendaris to add a direct line between Gendaris and Morpheum via Bowendorf, rather than simply using the line from Gendaris to Springfield and then connecting to Bowendorf. This extra track added more than 240 miles to the project which was not initially budgeted for."

Over all, the Central Rail's addition to the National Railway took much longer than its 5 year projected timeline. "We brought it in in just under 7 years," said Bradley. The 1007 mile project cost Central Rail more than 160 billion KRB, of which 43% was raised among Private Sector Investors. "This is significantly higher than the anticipated cost construction through Odufaray, which we initially aimed to keep under 100 billion KRB," said Bradley. "The numbers are indeed very daunting when you consider them in the aggregate, but keep in mind, less than 100 billion of that was from Public funds, spread out over 7 years. I think the Odufaran appetite for rail construction is sated though. There is not a lot of private money left to invest in additional miles here in this District, and likely will not until Odufaray's rail line begins generating profit, which we project to happen by 5345."

The completion and opening of Senvias Central Station signals a handoff for Vrassa Northern, who have been doing prep work to prepare for the arrival of the rail line in Vrassa over the last two years. "The delays we experienced in Odufaray will hopefully be offset by the work they have already done in Vrassa while they were waiting for us," said Bradley. "Vrassa Northern has already built tunnels through the Vrassan Mountains up into the Funk Valley. Those peaks, valleys and passes were considered formative, but two additional years of blasting have put them well ahead of schedule already. The Jah Hills will not offer such a barrier to progress."

Construction in Vrassa of the main rail line is expected to take 4 years, given that nearly all expected tunnels have been excavated, and more than half of the miles have already been graded. At the end of this time period, the rail line will be complete and will run from Addisjah on the Lodamun border all the way to Yoshimi, and will have a station in each major and most minor cities along the coast. At this time, the dream of high speed transnational ground transportation will be complete.