AirLink

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Overview

AirLink serves as the quick airport rail link between Stepford City or Leighton, and Stepford Airport, delivering passengers to Stepford Airport Central, Airport Terminal 2 and Airport Terminal 3 in 8 minutes. It currently has 7 routes, 2 direct, the 5 others with a flipped stopping pattern.

There's a chance that AirLink resembles the real life Gatwick Express since the livery of Gatwick Express is being used on the newer Next-Generation trains.

The AirLink Headquarters can be found at Berrily.

History of AirLink

2017

AirLink was first proposed back in November 2017, when Managing Director Charlie_RBX stated a new franchise was coming. The Class 345 Aventra trains were proposed to run the services, and many people were excited. In December 2017, multiple Class 345 trains started public testing, a sign that AirLink services were soon to commence, but they never did.

The original AirLink map, on display at Stepford Central before 2019.

A Class 345 test train atSt. Helen's Bridge, before the station's renovation.

2018

On the 23rd of September, an image was posted to the #sneak-peeks channel on SCR's Discord by Innovations Director BanTech which showed a picture of the new Stepford Central track layout for signal boards at the ROC. In the picture, it showed that platforms 12, 13, 14, and 15 were going to be used. This caused wild speculation among SCR players, stating that AirLink may be coming in V1.1.

Then in December, SCR released an advent calendar with each day as a sneak peek for V1.1. On Day 22, AirLink was confirmed, with Class 185 and 802 units running on the line. Many people were confused as to why the Class 345s were rejected - the most plausible answer is lag.

A duo of Class 345 units sit at the Stepford Airport Parkway Depot awaiting testing.

2019

When the clock struck midnight on January 1st, V1.1 was released, and AirLink services commenced with high frequencies. Class 332 and Class 360 units were shortly introduced. In February, Stepford Airport terminals 1, 2 and 3 opened for service. In May, AirLink recieved its first Next Generation fleet upgrade with the Class 185s. The Class 387s were then moved to AirLink from WaterLine, having been upgraded to NG. AirLink soon received new logo and a new colour scheme, from yellow to orange. In September, the Class 755s were introduced and services extended to Leighton Stepford Road to commemorate SCR hitting 5 million place visits. Toward the end of September, the Class 802s were upgraded.

Rolling Stock

The following list represents the current, past, and future fleet of AirLink.

Current

Class Number	Maximum Speed	Price	Number of Coaches	Routes Operated On	Train Family/Manufacturer	Date Put Into Service
Class 185 (Next-Gen)	100 MPH	1500 points	3 or 6 coaches	All routes	Siemens Mobility/Desiro	December 31, 2018 (Next Generation-May 24, 2019)
Class 332	100 MPH	1500 Points	4 or 5 coaches	All routes	Siemens Mobility and CAF	January 25, 2019
Class 360 (Next-Gen)	100 MPH	1500 Points	4 or 5 coaches	All routes	Siemens Mobility/Desiro	February 1, 2019 (Next Generation-July 20, 2019)
Class 387 (Next-Gen)	110 MPH	3000 Points	4 coaches	All routes	Bombardier Transportation/Electrostar	June 8, 2019
Class 755 (Next-Gen)	100 MPH	2250 points	3 or 4 coaches	All routes	Stadler Rail/FLIRT	September 16, 2019
Class 802 (Next-Gen)	110 MPH	3000 Points	5 coaches	All routes	Hitachi Rail Europe/A-Train 300 (AT300)	December 31, 2018 (Next Generation-September 30, 2019)

Former

Class Number	Maximum Speed	Price	Number of Coaches	Routes Operated on	Train Family/Manufacturer	Date Put into SCR	Date Withdrawn From SCR
Class 345 (Legacy test-train)	90 MPH	Unbuyable (was only a test train)	7 coaches	R052	Bombardier Transportation/Aventra	Mid of December 2017 (For beta test)	Mid of December 2017(beta test end)

Future

• No in this moment

Depots

Current

• Stepford Airport Parkway Depot
• Stepford Depot
• Leighton Depot

Future

• No depot has been revealed yet.

Former

• No depot has closed down yet.

Sidings

Current

• Stepford Airport Parkway Siding

Future

• No New Sidings cormfirmed

Former

• No siding has been closed yet.

Stations

Current

• Stepford Central
• Stepford East
• St. Helen's Bridge
• Elsemere Junction
• Berrily (Eastbound Journeys)
• Morganstown
• Stepford Airport Parkway
• Stepford Airport Central
• Terminal 1
• Terminal 2
• Airport Terminal 3
• Leighton Stepford Road

Future

• There are no announced stations on AirLink yet.

Former

• There are no former stations on AirLink.

Routes

You can see the list of all AirLink routes here.

Trivia

• The Logo is based off the Gatwick Express Logo as shown here.
• AirLink is the only franchise that has express and stopper routes.
• AirLink is the only franchise which offers first class onboard.
• AirLink has the joint fastest speeds ,with Connect on the network: 110mph
• Airlink has the lowest amount of different rolling stock (double, or trains with one extra carriage), which is 5.
• There are only 12 stops in total that Airlink serve, making it the least amount of stations served by an operator.
• The scheduled timetable says that Express Trains from Stepford Central don't stop until Airport Central, making this the greatest distance between two scheduled stations.
• With the exception of the Class 332, all Airlink fleets are Next Generation.
• Airlink holds the record of the longest train in the game, the double Class 185, having 6 coaches. AirLink also held the record of the longest train ever in the game, the unreleased Class 345, which had 7 coaches.
• AirLink doesn't use the 2 (Stopper) Headcode.
• AirLink and Connect are the second 2 operators to share tracks, as of the 16th September 2019 because of the extension to Leighton.
• This operator and Stepford Connect have many stations in common, except for the airport terminals.
• Every Airlink route plays the "The Train now approaching Platform x, does not stop here. Please stand back from the Platform edge." message while passing at least 1 station.
• If you zoom out at T1 or T2, you see an actual airport.