Intercontinental Railway

The **Intercontinental Railway** (**IR**) is a subterranean high-speed rail network linking most of the major settlements within the world of WikiCraft 5.0. Its name refers to the fact that the IR services cities situated on two continents - Tetrapolitania, Apus, and in future Aphelion - in addition to a few non-continental locations. The IR is owned and operated by the company Valis Transit International Ltd and is headquartered in Kassôn.

While the Intercontinental Railway currently consists of a single line (and one transfer line) servicing eight stations, plans are actively underway to extend the IR.

## History

The idea of creating a global network of rails linking all major cities and locations has its origins in WikiCraft 3.0. Inspired by the universal rail network in Civcraft, Cannonwalker expressed a desire to create a similar project in WC3. This idea was supported by his compatriots in Dreiton, which was by far the largest settlement in WC3 and thus envisioned as the starting point of a potential rail network. The citizens of Dreiton thus developed plans for the project. Cannonwalker (the city's 'Minister for Transport') began construction on the Dreiton Metro, a famous structure intended to serve as the city's rail station and featuring the largest single underground clearing in WikiCraft history (over 200,000 blocks were manually mined by the city's inhabitants). However, the plans were eventually scrapped and no rail was ever laid. This was due to two reasons; firstly, Dreiton was the only major city in the world and thus there were very few other possible locations that would warrant a rail connection; and secondly, most WC3 inhabitants had acquired broomsticks, a feature of the Magic plugin that allowed for fast travel across great distances and thus made the notion of a rail network redundant.

Early in WikiCraft 4.0, TsarGar revived the idea of building a rail network. Broomsticks were deemed illegal in WC4 so fast overland travel was no longer possible. Furthermore, unlike in WC3, the inhabitants of WC4 had founded multiple (albeit geographically close) cities rather than one large central city. For these reasons the concept of a rail network linking the world's major settlements seemed more viable. On 28 June 2020 (2 weeks after the opening of WC4) TsarGar completed the first leg of an underground rail network (then-called 'the Metro') linking Skyhold with Kassôn. On 2 July 2020 the rail was extended to Kalimor and on 16 July 2020 was extended again to Somel/Byblos, thus making it possible to traverse between all four cities of the Tetrapolis in less than two minutes. The Metro played a significant role in the Great Byblosi War, particularly when Meiji\_1868 and TsarGar used the underground rail to smuggle cleric villagers from Somel to Kassôn. On 19 March 2021, the Metro was extended once more from Kassôn to Oculita, a city far beyond the core Tetrapolis area. Plans were underway to extend the Metro even further to Aincrad, another notable WC4 city, but never came to fruition

With the opening of WikiCraft 5.0 on 13 August 2021, most users with few exceptions agreed to return to the WC3/Dreiton model and collectively settle in one large, central city - Haggstrom. Thus the notion of constructing a rail network in this world was not initially considered. However, over time the world of WC5 was expanded with fragments from its two previous instalments; on 20 July 2022, Dreiton and part of the Aphelion continent from the WC3 world were ported to WC5, and on 28 June 2023 the Tetrapolis (excluding Somel) from WC4 was added. Thus several major cities on multiple distant continents now coexisted in the WC5 world. In addition, ReagentAH had recently completed construction on his long-standing project the Colossus and was developing plans for a nearby city, both in the middle of an ocean far from any of the inhabitated continents. With such considerable distances now separating various points of interest in WC5, the concept of a rail network now seemed not only justified, but necessary. The idea for a rail network in WC5 was first proposed by ReagentAH and agreed upon by TsarGar; the two immediately set to work.

During the transfer of the Tetrapolis from WC4 to the WC5 world, the original Metro completed by TsarGar was carried over as well. However, this version was drastically shortened as neither Somel nor Oculita were carried over, thus defuncting the extensions of the line from Kalimor and Kassôn respectively. Nevertheless ReagentAH and TsarGar decided to simply extend from the Metro's existing rail and mimic its style. The first leg of the extention, a distance of over 5,000 blocks from Kassôn to the Colossus, was completed on 8 July 2023. On Apus, a separate line was then constructed from Haggstrom to the nearby End Portal, completed on 10 August 2023, before that line was extended to the Colossus on 14 August 2023. Thus the separate continents of Apus and Tetrapolitania were now linked by rail. Meanwhile ReagentAH had completed a short transfer line linking the Colossus station with nearby Klein-Venedig. On 6 September 2023, a final extension on the main line was completed from Kalimor to the Boneyard, a second End portal discovered by ReagentAH and converted into a mob-grinding area and duping factory.