AirLink

Template:Line

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.

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 8, in the corner of the Berrily sneak peek, the AirLink Headquarters was shown spreading wild speculation that AirLink might be coming in 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 along with a slow max speed of only 90. On December 31st when the clock struck midday AirLink was opened, just in time for New Year.

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

2019

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 like Class 185. AirLink soon received a new logo and a new colour scheme, from yellow to orange. In July, Class 360 received Next Generation upgrade. In September, the Class 755s were introduced and services extended to Leighton Stepford Road to commemorate SCR hitting 5 Million Visits. Toward the end of September, the Class 802s were upgraded to Next Generation. AirLink celebrated its first anniversary on the 31st of December 2019, the day Version 1.1 was also released. Since then, the line has not received any further upgrades, and the entire AirLink network had seemed to be completed, however the upgrading of the Class 332 units to Next Generation was still to be completed.

2020

In V1.4.3, Next Generation Class 332 is released, which made the whole AirLink fleet become Next Generation.

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	Manufacturer/Train Family	Date Put Into Service
Class 185	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	CAF and Siemens Mobility	January 25, 2019 (Next Generation- March 11, 2020)
Class 360	100 MPH	1500 Points	4 or 5 coaches	All routes	Siemens Mobility/Desiro	February 1, 2019 (Next Generation-July 20, 2019)
Class 387	110 MPH	3000 Points	4 coaches	All routes	Bombardier Transportation/Electrostar	June 8, 2019
Class 755	100 MPH	2250 points	3 or 4 coaches	All routes	Stadler Rail/FLIRT	September 16, 2019
Class 802	110 MPH	3000 Points	5 coaches	All routes	Hitachi Rail Europe/A-Train AT300 (Nova 1)	December 31, 2018 (Next Generation-September 30, 2019)

Former

Class Number	Maximum Speed	Price	Number of Coaches	Routes Operated on	Manufacturer/Train Family	Date Put into SCR	Date Withdrawn From SCR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

Future

• There is no confirmed future fleet for AirLink at the moment.

Depots

Current

• Stepford Airport Parkway Depot
• Stepford Depot
• Leighton Depot

Future

• No AirLink depot has been revealed yet.

Former

• No AirLink depot has closed down yet.

Sidings

Current

• Stepford Airport Parkway Siding

Future

• No New AirLink Sidings confirmed

Former

• No AirLink siding has been closed yet.

Stations

Current

• Stepford Central
• Stepford East
• St. Helen's Bridge
• Elsemere Junction
• Berrily (Eastbound Journeys Only)
• Morganstown
• Stepford Airport Parkway
• Stepford Airport Central
• Terminal 1 (Journeys to Terminal 2 Only)
• Terminal 2
• 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 and livery are based off Gatwick Express .
• During Version 1.1, AirLink is the only franchise of the two (Connect and Waterline are both in the same franchise) in the game that has express and stopper routes. However, Stepford Express now shares this trait after its addition in Version 1.4,
• 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.
• AirLink is first operator to have all paper/legacy trains converted to Next Generation.
• AirLink ties the record of the longest train in the game, the double Class 185, having 6 coaches. The other train is the Class 43. 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, as there are no all stop routes on the line.
• 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, T2 or T3, you see an actual airport.
• It is believed that during 2017, AirLink used to be called "AirExpress", evident from old announcments in the Discord server.
• Ironically, AirLink's HQ can be found at the least used station which is Berrily.
• This is the first operator to feature First Class sections in trains.
• Currently, this is the only operator which doesn't have an interchange with WaterLine.
• This is the first operator to have all trains upgraded to Next Generation. Stepford Express doesn’t count because its trains were already next-gen from the start.