Many of the larger towns and cities of Aporue
have been slowly developing their own internal transportation
infrastructure for a long time. Though these efforts had been evolving
naturally for centuries, it was the relatively recent arrival of the
industrial age that has brought about the greatest upheavals in this
field. While most of the towns and cities of the continent could only
dream of advanced and systematically planned transportation
infrastructure, the greatest cities of Aporue - often showcases of
political, cultural and economic might - have taken eagerly to reform or
expand the methods of transport available to them. Great urban areas
forming city states of their own were no exception to this. Present day
Melza is just one such example, but arguably one of the finest, most
varied and often even most innovative on the whole continent.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT AND MASS TRANSIT
Melza is well-renowned for having one of the most extensive and often
one of the most modern public transport systems in all of Aporue. There
are two main government-funded transport agencies in the whole city
state: The Melzan Municipal Transport Authority (MMTA) is wholly
state-owned and operates urban mass transit throghout the city-proper
and on the most important commuter lines in the rural parts of the
state. The “Melzan Baronial” (MB) brand of road, rail, naval and aerial
transport companies cover international travel to and from the city
state, and internal travel throughout the state's adjoining countryside.
Unlike the MMTA, the MB companies are partly in private ownership and
are awarded franchises to operate public transport by the government and
its shareholders within the MB brand. The four companies are “MB
Coaches”, “MB Rail”, “MB Waterways” and “MB Skyways”.
a.) Road-based trasport
Horsetrams - Horse-drawn, roofed passenger carriages with
multiple seating places, windows and plentiful room for standing
passengers. Operated by the MMTA. Horsetrams service much of The City's
main roads and largest streets on regular routes (horsetram lines),
based on regular timetables. Though they're not fast and have to compete
with privately-owned road vehicles for hire, such as cabs and taxis,
the very low fares make them a fairly popular way to get around Melza.
“Hurray for cheapskates !”, goes the jokey motto of many a Melzan
horsetram driver.
Omnibuses - Historically speaking, a relatively new
transportation service in the Melzan state, only founded a few decades
ago. Omnibuses are larger roofed, enclosed carriages, with plenty of
seating for a fair few passengers (some up to 15 or 20 !), and quite a
plentiful storage space for typical baggage. They are also called
“coaches” or “horsebuses”. In contrast to horsetrams, they operate
outside The City and belong under the company Melzan Baronial Coaches.
Much like the more traditional fiacres, omnibuses service the Melzan
countryside or international routes to other countries. The big
difference is that they travel on regular lines, based on regular
timetables, and that they can transport a larger number of passengers,
more similarly to a city-bound horsetram. Fares for omnibuses are
pricier than for a horsetram or a private cab, but they are also cheaper
than passenger train fares, or passenger boat or aircraft tickets.
Depending on the distance travelled, the destination and the
owner/operator, fiacre services can have fares fairly similar to omnibus
fares, making for healthy competition.
b.) Rail-based transport
The “Swishtram” - state-owned urban mass transit project,
owned and operated by the Melzan Municipal Transport Authority (MMTA).
It is a rather ingenious modular rail-based mass transit system,
originally designed by a local vehicle innovator. The cars/coaches in a
swishtram set can operate on various types of tracks and lines in and
around the city, switching between suspension and wheel modes according
to their needs. This allows them to work as trams (or a primitive analogue of "light rail"), as underground/subway rail, as hill-climbing funiculars, or even as a suspension monorail (in the style of the real world's Wuppertal and Dresden lines).
The Swishtram services both urban lines and local lines in the vicinity
of the city. Many times, even a vehicle-less, on-foot player character
will find this unusual railway to be a very useful method for faster
travelling in and near the city. While it's no steampunk high speed
rail, it's a reasonably fast and dependable way of getting around The
City, provided that you are willing to put up with the location of
stations and stops and the travelling on foot occassionally needed in
between them. On a trivial note, the popular name for this transport
system comes from the fact that it's tram-like coaches are rather
speedy, making audible “swish” sounds while passing stations and
platforms.
Melzan Baronial Rail (MBR) - state-owned railway company,
part of the wider “Melzan Baronial” transport franchise. The MBR focuses
primarily on passenger rail transport to and from neighbouring states.
Primary connections on offer are to several regional centres and railway
hubs, as well as to all the capitals of neighbouring countries. Fares
and car comfort are dependent on whether one travels by first class
(luxury, full service), second class (average comfort, vendor service)
or third class (basic comfort, no service). The MBR also focuses on
freight operations, but these are more in the background in terms of
promotion, unless you're a local businessman.
c.) Water-based transport
Parts of The City lie on both banks of the Melza river, parts form de
facto quarters of criss-crossing canals and urbanised river islands.
Maintaining regular riverine transport of passengers and goods is
therefore logical and vital in many areas of the city.
However, until relatively recently, there was something of a bitter
tug-of-war over riverine and canal transport between the city's
government authorities and the established local private providers.
Though resolved now, it took a while to clear up via various
back-and-forth negotiations and deals. The current Melzan government is
adamant about avoiding another ordeal like this in the future. Well, as
it currently stands, public water transport in the hands of the
government includes…
Commuter boats - Smaller, usually unmotorised boats for
shuttling small numbers of passengers on a few regular lines of the
busiest city waterways of Melza. MB Waterways commuter boats tend to be
quite cheap, and their favourable fares often make them compete with
some privately-operated punt services (“watercabs”). However, as
commuter boats service generally smaller areas of The City than their
private competition, they are more rigid in terms of their route
offerings and timetables, and thus a bit less flexible.
Waterbuses - Roofed and motorised larger boats or small
ships, used for transporting bigger, moderately-sized amounts of
passengers. Functionally, they are almost identical to the commuter boat
concept, but they can take quite a lot more passengers aboard in one
go, tend to be relatively faster, and venture onto the Melza river
itself more often than their smaller cousins. Waterbuses are also rarer
in numbers than commuter boats and service less lines. Usually, they
focus on the most passenger-intensive lines of the city's waterways. The
most common method of propulsion for waterbuses is a high-performance
steam engine. MB Waterways has recently dabbled in testing
petrol-powered waterbus prototypes, but this is still just an
experiment.
Ferries - Something of a specialised boat type. As their
name implies, they play a crucial role in shuttling people, smaller
vehicles and goods from one bank of the river Melza to the other, since
several parts of The City lie on both banks. This makes ferries an
invaluable vehicle for hauling varied larger loads across the river in
places where bridges would be harder to build, or where there isn't
enough clamouring and finances to build a bridge across the river. Due
to the simple role the ferries fulfill, they have short and predictable
routes from one bank of the river to the other, usually along a straight
line.
d.) Aerial transport
Blimp services - in the ownership of the Melzan
government, via the Melzan Baronial Skyways company (part of the “Melzan
Baronial” transport franchise). Mostly chartered passenger flights,
more rarely chartered cargo flights or regular passenger/cargo flights.
The blimps available are the Stargazer, North Star, Eclipse and Canopy of the Heavens.
Booking orders and tickets for flights on these blimps is quite easy
and fairly affordable. But be warned, this is an expensive endeavour to
sink one's money in.
The Looking Glass - state-owned aeronav in the ownership
of the Melzan government, operated via the Melzan Baronial Skyways
company (part of the “Melzan Baronial” transport franchise). It's a
comfortable, well-furnished passenger airliner, and carries out flights
on regular lines. Booking tickets for flights on The Looking Glass is easy and fairly affordable. But be warned, this is an expensive endeavour to sink one's money in.
Adsehteb - state-owned aeronav in the ownership of the
Melzan government, operated via the Melzan Baronial Skyways company
(part of the “Melzan Baronial” transport franchise). It's a commercial
hauler and freighter, and can be ordered for chartered cargo flights,
once an appropriate fee is payed and the customs police thoroughly
checks the cargo. But be warned, this is an expensive endeavour to sink
one's money in. And if the customs police discover your attempt to
smuggle something on a state-owned freighter, you can get into big
trouble.
The Arcane - state-owned aeronav in the ownership of
Melza's government and aeroforce. Effectively the city state's
VIP/governmental aircraft. Completely off limits to everyone who is not a
trusted government employee. Outside of sneaking aboard, don't even
think you might be able to hitch a ride on this vehicle in any legal
way.
PRIVATELY-FUNDED TRANSPORT
The City itself and its contracted transport companies aren't the only
ones who offer a way to get around, out of or into Melza without needing
to walk. If you find privately owned methods of transportation more
appealing, you can always use them as an alternative to state-owned
transport services.
a.) Ground-based transport
Cabs - Enclosed and horse-drawn buggies or petite
carriages, for hire. Fairly slow, but ever-dependable and with
reasonably cheap fares. They are the most common privately-owned urban
road transport in Melza. Some of the cab services in The City are truly
veteran businesses, the oldest currently still in existence going back a
century and more. While a common sight on the roads of the city and
favoured by many, there are also plenty of citizens that find cabs
annoying due to the unpredictable behaviour of the horses, the waste
they leave behind, and the cabs themselves often getting stuck in
certain places and blocking traffic. Everything has its downsides, even
long-established methods of transport.
Taxis - Motor vehicles still being a fairly recent and
wonky innovation, taxi services are not very numerous yet, whether in
Melza or in other developed metropolises of Aporue. Cars used as taxis
form a motorised counterpart to the tried-and-true horse-drawn cab.
While some of the newest taxi cars have been slowly gaining the
advantage of speed over cabs, and don't require easily spooked horses
for propulsion, they have a tendency to break down quite often (like the
vast majority of Aporue's motorcars). There's also the added issue that
plenty of Melzan taxi drivers like to be cheeky with their prices. They
positively love to abuse desperate people in a hurry for some quick and
hard cash, especially people hurrying to the train station…
Fiacres - Best described as a countryside iteration of the
cab concept, “fiacres” are really a loose umbrella term that
encompasses a variety of four-wheeled, horse-drawn carriages. A fiacre
is thus more of a business model concept, rather than a specific type of
carriage. Individuals and small companies offering fiacre services can
be described as the privately-owned counterparts to the public-funded
omnibus services. Outside of the more varying fares and each fiacre
operator bringing his own touches to his services, fiacres are
functionally not much different from omnibuses. However, they do tend to
be smaller and cosier, sticking closer to the more traditional image of
the long-distance carriage or stagecoach. Like cabs, fiacres have also
been around for a lot longer than the government-sponsored omnibuses.
Bike couriers - Bicycles are as novel a transport
innovation as early motor wagons, but they have so far seen more limited
use in the countryside, due to local roads that are not as well paved.
However, in The City, they have found a surprising niche: Enterprising
private messengers saved up money, purchased bicycles and started using
them for deliveries, faster than ones done on foot. Bicycle couriers in
Melza are not that common, but those that already do exist usually ride
one-man, two-wheeled bikes and deliver messages, letters and parcels.
(They've been successful enough that the barony's postal service is
already looking into buying some bicycles for their letter-carriers and
postmen, to make their daily errands in The City easier.) A few bicycle
couriers have even taken up the recent invention of the velocar as a new
business opportunity, and use them now as small, man-powered delivery
vans. These are capable of carrying even larger parcels and packages and
small cargo crates.
Horseback and motorbike couriers - Old and new approaches
meet in these two possible options for delivering urgent messages,
letters and parcels in the countryside surrounding Melza. As motorbikes
are still very rare forms of motorised transport, with only a few such
couriers in the entire statelet, one's best bet for fast courier
delivery in the rural areas is a horseback courier, a time-tested method
used for many centuries.
b.) Rail-based transport
Narrow-gauge and switchback railways - These are outside
of the MBR system and are used for freight and economic purposes only,
in some parts of the rural mountain regions. Some are still
animal-powered, with rail trucks pulled by hardy draught horses, but
some have already adopted small steam locomotives. These private
railways are used to transport logged wood and other forestry materials
to local sawmills, charcoal burners, rural forges and workshops. The
only major town that connects to these little local railways is Árast
Atrav, the main mining town of the statelet. All the other “stations”
situated at logging camps and sawmills in the forests or at one of the
mountain villages.
c.) Water-based transport
Punts - Locals also refer to them by the popular moniker
“Watercabs”. Small and fairly narrow canal and river boats, they can't
carry much in the way of passengers or any actual cargo, but they're
good enough if one wants a reasonably fast and especially cheap ride on
the available waterways of The City. Watercabs are generally quite
analogous to their wheeled, street-bound cousins, really.
Delivery boats - Small, but robust shuttle boats used by
various businesses and commercial operations to deliver smaller amounts
of cargo from one end of The City to the next, provided there's a
waterway for that. Melza being Melza, a lot of delivery boats tend to be
used for secret smuggling activities and other cunning criminal
malarkey.
Freight barges - Self-propelled or tug-propelled barges
used for commercial ferrying of various cargo on the Melza river, from
near or far. Most barges fall under the second type, being little more
than simple floating storage areas, requiring steam-powered tugs. As
with delivery boats, expect a fair few of the privately-owned freight
barges to be used in smuggling by various groups of the local criminal
underworld.
Pleasure barges - Fairly fancy and fairly pricy passenger
boats for the fancy-minded and well-paying clientele. They're usually
chartered transports, rather than boats servicing a regular line, and
tend to focus on taking their passengers on local sightseeing cruises on
the river. “Pleasure barge” is something of a misnomer, as not all
ships with this function and business model are barges in the classic
sense. Nevertheless, this has become the common term for these smaller
vessels in mundane parlance. (Probably because the earliest pleasure
barges of centuries ago were reserved almost solely for Melza's ruling
family and assorted aristocrats, before the rise of the state's more
well-off bourgeoisie citizens allowed easier public access to pastimes
like this.) With many pleasure barges being used as places for business
meetings or private rendezvous of wealthy personalities, a thief can
find them good sources of intel or potentially priceless loot.
Steamboat riverliners - Larger passenger steamships
operated on the river by all sorts of privately-owned transport
ventures, some local, some foreign. Despite the lofty-sounding term for
these ships, not all of them are particularly cozy or luxurious. Some of
them are bargain-priced and fairly austere in terms of accomodation and
onboard services, the cheapest being little more than a rudimentary
cabin with a bed and a wash basin. In contrast, the more upscale
riverliners offer quite a degree of ritz and comfort to their
hard-paying customers. With plenty of the more luxurious riverliners
being used as places for business meetings or private rendezvous of
wealthy personalities, a thief can find them good sources of intel or
potentially priceless loot.
d.) Aerial transport
Ornithopter owners - Buy a chartered 'thopter flight
that suits your needs (or convince a 'thopter's owner to strike a deal
with you about giving you one). Be warned, this is an expensive
endeavour to sink one's money in.
Blimp services and airlines - Buy a ticket for a flight on
a regular blimp line, or buy a chartered blimp flight that suits your
needs. Be warned, this is an expensive endeavour to sink one's money in.
Troika - private aeronav in the ownership of Melzan
industralist and scholar Bosvak Zosikan. You might hitch a ride aboard
it if you gain old Zosikan's trust and if he decides to gather a crew
for a particular journey or expedition.
Smok - aeronav owned by a band of stateless
smugglers-privateers under the leadership of Kirill Aľman. You might
hitch a ride aboard it if you gain the crew's trust and they set off for
a particular mission/journey. (Smok is Lengelian for "dragon".)
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The motorcars briefly mentioned several times are, at best,
"horseless buggy" style vehicles
and a huge novelty. Some are trikes, some quads, some even weirder,
some steam-powered, some experimenting with liquid fuels and primitive
electric batteries.
That about covers the various forms of organized transport one can see
within the territory of the statelet. There's plenty to choose from. You
can, of course, use your own feet, or buy or lend a mount or some
simpler vehicle as well.
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Copyright(C) 2014, 2019 - 2024 P. Molnár
(C) 2014, 2019 - 2024 Knight-Errant Studios
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