Kyusigai Metro

The 7690 version of the map of the Kyusigai Metro in the Anarian alphabet. The map is schematic and not to scale.

The Kyusigai Metro or きゅしがい けれた ばわふ たなふ (Kyusigai Kereta Bawafu Tanafu) is the metropolitan railway system of Kyusigai, the capital of Sokoku. Locally, the metro is commonly referred to as けばた (Kebata) as an acronym of Kereta Bawafu Tanafu. It consists of 11 lines with a total length of around 350 km and has 217 stations. Even though the Bahaso name literally means "subway" or "tunneled railway", only 50-60 km has actually been built underground.

History

The metro system is the result of careful planning, which is typical for Sokokan urbanism. When the Häverist Urbanate of Schlung was liberated from Helreich's rule, the new leadership of Shuuen designated the city as new capital for the independant state that later would evolve into Sokoku. The Urbanate did not have plans for a metro system, but some regional railways had been build, which the city board of Kyusigai used as a starting point for an urban rail system.

When Sokoku was founded in 76XX one of the first acts was planning for efficient and vibrant cities, where local transportation was the centerpiece. In the case of Kyusigai, a master plan was developed for 1 million inhabitants in 50 years time, which included four metro lines converging into a central axis with three stations: Pusat, Kotatua and Kunci. Line A (the current purple lines) was opened between Maret Emas and Syair Pujian in 7623. Soon after followed line B (current red lines) between Lehar (nowadays Lehar Pusat) and Gunung Palu. Within 10 years the third line C (current blue lines) opened as well.

Even though the city's master plan showed 4 metro lines, these lines were extended first before that fourth line was built. Often in stages of 4-6 stations at a time, usually spaced with about 1 km between them, the network was gradually growing. The new stations formed the backbone of residential planning in the city, where thousands of dwellings were completed each year. In 7653, 30 years after opening, the blue line to the southwest was split into two branches from Bunga Bakung station. A new, revised city plan was presented in 7659 now aiming at 2.5 million inhabitants in the year 7700, with all of the 4 lines splitting and fanning out, creating a network of 8 lines.

Another change in the plans was that Line D would not be connected to the central axis, but would intersect the network at 4 separate stations. Both lines in the northwest were opened in phases between 7656 and 7667 as part of the construction of a new part of the city there.

When the city reached its goal of 2.5 million inhabitants already in 7677, the 8 line network needed a quick upgrade. This was found in the so-called green lines, four regional railways that would get incorporated into the system. In 7679 the system was extended with four lines, temporarily terminating at Kunci and Pusat, while construction of a new central tunnel from Tenaga Surya to Negara Selatan began. When this tunnel opened in 7685 the lines could be connected. The lilac line was also diverted to this new track to serve the 4 new stations on the metro network. The green lines have a different character with stations spaced out 4-8 km between each other, nearly doubling the network's length in one go.

The latest addition to the network is the white, circular line. This is a mixed line, in parts a metro tunnel, in other parts a streetcar on the road's median while in some parts it is a converted cargo line. The part between Tenaga Surya and Gunung Palu was opened in 7690 and runs parallel to the cargo line connecting to the northern harbor.

Future plans

Extensions to the northeast and southeast are not expected since the landscape is a rugged coast with difficult circumstances for urbanisation. The blue lines and purple line towards the west is also considered complete, since extension would lead to long travel times on the line.

Apart from extending the white circular line, there are plans to open a third green line, branching off to the northwest and southwest. Furthermore, the orange line is currently being extended past Leher Kotak towards Ular Masuk and Pulau Panas. But most work is done at upgrading the stations where the green line connects to existing metro lines.

Characteristics

Palu Oleh station, platform on the Apricot Line.

The purple, red and blue lines are classical metro lines with underground stretches in central parts, stations about 1 km apart and mostly double track. The later built orange lines have mainly been built undergound with stations about 1.5 km apart. The green lines are regional urban railways that have been integrated into the system. These reach as far as 80 km from the city center, while the other metro lines are 20-25 km long.

While the system was designed to transport to and from a larger central area, the later added green lines bypass those central stations in order to spread out passengers more evenly across the system. This means that passengers on the green line always will have to change to other metro lines to reach the center. But the green lines have good connectibility to other lines in general. However, there are no transit stations to the red lines, which makes travel between these lines quite complicated.

In the periphery of the coastal regions the metro system is more like a suburban railway with small scale stops at platforms instead of station buildings. Several of these lines are single track for the last 3-5 stops, since a single train can carry out a 10 to 15 minute interval timetable without any problem. This means that during rush hours, severak trains on the red line will not go all the way to the terminus, but turn around at Lintah Boda, Gunung Palu or Bangau.

Metro map

Kyusigai has adopted the abstract, more systematic map style since the start of the metro operation. At first the lines got very basic colours (red, blue, green, purple), but later they got their current colours with distinct names (see below). The maps published since 7625 received a lot of complaints in the 7650's, since the lay-out with basic colors on white was difficult to read on the platforms of the stations located above ground that were opened during that time, due to the sharp, direct sunlight.

The metro operator tried a black background first, but the colours on this one faded quickly and the paper on which it was printed curled and crinkled under the influence of the solar heat. So in 7561 the first map with the gray-beige background that is in use up to today was published.

Since the map is schematic, it is not to scale. So in the city's center, the distances are smaller in reality, while at the same time the distances between stations on the green lines is much larger than on the other ones. On a scaled map, the green lines would extend 2-4 times beyond the terminus stations of the other lines.

The font type used for the Anarian alphabet version was developed specifically for the map and is called Kebata after the metro system itself. It has become the standard for Anarian alphabet publications within public transportation all over Sokoku since the 7670's.

Nomenclature

Lines

When the original lines were planned, the got the names Line A, B, C and D. After the opening of Line B, the first metro map was published with Line A as the purple line and Line B as the red line. These were followed by the blue line (C) and orange line. These were also the most commonly used names: the basic colors.

In 7653 the blue line got split, which created the light blue and dark blue lines. But when the red line was split in 7660, there was no possibility to call these the dark red and light red lines. A similar problem would occur for the orange and purple lines. But even up to today, the 5 combinations of lines are still called after their original colors, but always in plural: the purple, red, blue, orange and green lines.

The city developed a new color scheme for the metro map in the early 7670's and started a competition for the line names referring to their new colors, which still are a version of the original colors. So today, the 11 lines go by their Sokokan color names:

Purple lines	Red lines	Blue lines	Orange lines	Green lines	White line
Akebi Akebi fruit	Carsiyu Pork meat dish	Danaukawah Crater lake	Korisema Flame pea flower	Cemara Coniferous tree	Putih White
Wisteriya Wisteria flower	Memerah Blush	Muara Estuary	Aprikot Apricot fruit	Ganggang Seaweed

Stations

The vast majority of the station names are toponyms. Since commonly used geographical features like bay (teluk), beach (pantai or untai), field (badang or rumput), forest (hutan), hill (gunung) or built features like bridge (jembatang), city (kota), park (taman), square (rencana or kotah), road (jalang) or village (desa) appear at the start of the name, stations starting with these tend to be spread out all over the system. There are 9 stations on 9 lines starting with Gunung for example. On top of that, there are confusing double names meaning almost the same, like the stations Taman Desa (Muara line) and Taman Kota (Aprikot line) almost 15 kilometers apart, as well as almost similar names like Taman Raja (Aprikot line) and Taman Jala Raya (Muara line) about 8 kilometers apart.

Other names however, like Kisah, Kuci, Leher, Suara and Tener Surya refer to settlements that have several stations. In the case of Tener Surya these are also located on different lines that cross this previously separate city that got incorporated into Kyusigai in 7674.

This can be quite confusing for visitors not familiar with the Bahaso language, not being able to distinct the geographical prefixes from the more gathered settlement names.