Kanton Mainline

The Kanton Mainline is a high-speed rail corridor owned and operated by Southeastern Express that runs mostly parallel to the KMAT Mycelium Line. It is the oldest of Southeastern's trunk lines, however is the newest in terms of infrastructure, and currently has six stations. Sakura Airport Express also operates it's Kanton and Pylston routes on this corridor.

## History

### Startup

The Kanton Mainline was first concieved in 1867 as a plan to connect the two neighboring cities of Kanton and Pylston, by a private company that would later form into the Pylston-Monument Railway (PMR). The plan seemed popular among citizens, so the local governments approved the PMR's plan. The PMR was eager to start making profits with their new railroad line, but lacked the funding. The PMR took out a loan decided to start a funding campaign to help ease most of the cost. Luckily, the funding campaign was successful and the loan was approved. The Pylston-Monument Railway started construction in 1872.

### Construction & Early Years

In 1883, the first portion of the line was completed, running between Rowen's Green in the small community of Sakura and the pre-existing Pylston Cathedral station, with no intermediate stations. Although the line did not yet extend fully into Kanton, the line received a major amount of use as people started to commute daily from the small town of Sakura to Pylston to work in it's factories.

In 1887, the line extended north to the growing district of Chester of Kanton, with a new station at Chester Bay. Due to a decrease in passenger numbers, this would remain the northern terminus of the line, until 1892 when construction restarted. The PMR had purchased land in central Kanton for their new Kanton terminus, which would be named Monument Street once built. The extension up to Monument Street had finished in 1901, and the Pylston-Monument Railway finally started to see a significant increase in passenger numbers and profit.

### Southeastern Era

In 1916, due to the growth of the Kanton Financial District, Chester Bay station was renamed to Kanton Financial Center, and was rebuilt to have more platforms that also matched the length of Monument Street's. In 1929, Rowen's Green was renamed to just Rowen Green to match the Rowen Shuttle's new nearby station.

In 1934, due to the Great Depression, the Pylston-Monument Railway sold to the Government of Adirona, as it was on the verge of bankruptcy. The Adirona government merged the Pylston-Monument Railway with many other private companies to create a new government-owned company called Southeastern Express. Along with the merger, new services were created to the large southern cities of Sabarife and Uxmont, appropriately named the Intercity Uxmont and Intercity Sabarife. The railway line also got renamed to the Kanton Mainline after the purchase.

In 1941, due to tourist, passenger, and real estate demands, it was decided to reroute the railway line north through Greystone National Park, adding two new stations to the route, Greystone National Park and Kanton International. The line was to be built underground in order to preserve the wildlife of the park.

In 1946, due to an increase in residential demand in central Kanton, many people wanted Monument Street to become an underground station. Although the railway agreed, this would be a challenge due to the station's designation as a historical structure. However, after some brilliant thinking by Southeastern, they decided to rebuild the station, in the same location and with the same materials, but sunken underground. After this was completed, a fake hill was placed above the platforms, held up by steel. New underground concourses in the style of the old Pylston-Monument Railway's architecture were also created. During this short time period, the terminal was temporarily cut back to Kanton International. The station, as well as the new Spawn Boulevard Cutting railyard, were completed

### Greystone Park Earthquake of 1954

In 1954, the thought-to-be dormant Greystone Fault Line experienced a minor earthquake. Although it didn't affect most citizens, the quake caused many problems for the Kanton Mainline, as well as minor problems for the KMAT City Circular. The tunnels under Greystone Park, as well as the Greystone National Park station, had mostly collapsed or were heavily damaged due to the proximity to the fault line. The quake also caused the Greystone Lakes to overflow, increasing water levels across Kanton, submerging many streets and beaches across the harbor coastline, most famously the Dyker Peninsula Beach. The overflowing waters made it into the Spawn Beach Cutting and Monument Street station, severely damaging the 53-year-old Monument Street station. If Monument Street hadn't been moved underground in 1946, the station would have more than likely survived the flooding, and would still be open to this day, however due to it's newly-sunken status, which itself damaged the station, mixed with the quake, Monument was forced to close after the quake. Luckily, no trains were in the Greystone tunnels at the time of the quake, and all other trains in the Kanton area had been fully evacuated before any casualties could occur.

Due to the quake, the line was cut back to Kanton Financial Center while reconstruction occured. In 1956, construction started on new, reinforced tunnel that would be created with a tunnel boring machine.

[FINISH LATER]

### **TEMPORARY:** Later Years (old)

In 2004, construction began on the Rybimo Corridor, another high-speed rail corridor connecting Kanton to areas southwest of the city, and to the (UNNAMED) Unincorporated Region of Adirona, which led to the creation of the Intercity Southwest line that also ran via the corridor. In 2005, after the recent construction of the new Dyker Park business district in central Kanton, a plan was approved to close the Monument Street terminal in favor of a new modern railway station in Dyker, which would connect to the new KMAT station that opened three years prior. The new station complex was completed in 2007, and the Monument Street railway and KMAT station were slowly closed over the next year. The Intercity Kanton was also renamed to the Intercity Uxmont due to passenger confusion with the Intercity Kanton stopping at less stations than the many other Southeastern routes into Kanton. Later, in 2011, construction began on Southeastern's new Monument Railway Museum at Dyker Park, telling the history of Kanton's many railways and different companies. In the same year, the Mister Malls company also started construction on the Dyker Park Mall, which would connect to both the railway station and the museum. The museum finished construction in 2013 while the mall finished construction in 2015, completing the modern-day Dyker Park station complex.