AirLink

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Overview

Airlink operates rail services from Stepford Central and Leighton to Stepford Airport, linking Berrily and Morganstown along the way. A full journey on the mainline, which runs from Stepford Central to Stepford Airport Central, takes about eight minutes non-stop.

The route is classified as semi-high-speed rail, but it is also considered (and is) an airport rail link. The trains on this route reach an average maximum speed of 100 miles per hour, with the exception of the Class 802, which can achieve 125 miles per hour, and the Class 387, which can achieve 110 miles per hour. Trains commonly run at top speed on the journey between the airport and the city.

2017

In November 2017, plans were announced to open a new route named AirExpress linking Stepford City and Stepford Airport. On 13th December, a Class 345 unit was used for a public test run of the route under the name Airlink.

2018

Throughout December 2018, plans for the opening of the route were revealed, with Class 185 and Class 802 units as the rolling stock. Services commenced on 31st December with various routes running between Stepford Central and Stepford Airport Central, with the extension to the airport terminals being confirmed as well.

2019

On 24th January, Class 332 units were introduced, alongside Class 360 units on 1st February. In February, Airport Terminals 1, 2, and 3 opened for service. In May, Airlink received its first Next Generation fleet upgrade with the Class 185's. The Class 387's were then moved to Airlink from Waterline, having been upgraded similarly to the Class 185. Airlink soon received a new logo and a new colour scheme, from yellow to orange. In July, Class 360's received the Next Generation upgrade. In September, the Class 755's were introduced and services extended to Leighton Stepford Road to commemorate SCR hitting 5 million visits. Toward the end of September, the Class 802's were upgraded to Next Generation. Airlink celebrated its first anniversary on 31 December 2019, the day Version 1.1 was released a year prior. Since then, the line has not received any further upgrades, and the entire Airlink network seemed like it was completed and no further line extensions were anticipated.

2020

In V1.4.3, Next Generation Class 332 was released, which as a result made the whole Airlink fleet become Next Generation. On March 18, Stepford Central received its second upgrade of the year, the first being in V1.4.1, which gave it a more modern appearance. This upgrade added an uncompleted lounge near the Airlink platforms, supposedly for first class passengers.

On the 11th of August, a second rebrand of Airlink was sneak peeked, with a completely remodelled Class 802 in a new livery, with an orange and white livery.

On the 21st of August, the rebranded Airlink Class 802 was released to the public with its brother units Class 801 is yet to be finished being upgraded.

On the 14th of September, a remodelled Class 387 was sneak peeked with the same upgraded livery as the Class 802 with a NGv3 rebuild. The Class 377 was also shown in the sneak peek.

On the 29th of September, the remodelled Class 387 was released into the game alongside its brother unit, the Class 377.

Rolling Stock

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

Current

Class Number	Image	Top Speed (mph)	Price (Points)	Carriages	Manufacturer	Train Family	Date Put Into Service	Date converted to NG	Routes Operated On
Class 185		100	1500 1125	3 (Single) 6 (Double)	Siemens	Desiro	December 31, 2018	May 24, 2019	R051 R052 R053 R054 R055 R056 R057
Class 332			1500 1125	4 (/0) 5 (/1)	Siemens and CAF	N/A	January 25, 2019	March 11, 2020
Class 360				4 (/1) 5 (/2)	Siemens	Desiro	February 1, 2019	July 20, 2019
Class 387		110	3000 2250	4	Bombardier	Electrostar	June 8, 2019
Class 755		100	2250 1688	3 (/3) 4 (/4)	Stadler	FLIRT	September 16, 2019
Class 802		125	3000 2250	5	Hitachi	A-Train	December 31, 2018	September 30, 2019

Future

• None at the moment.

Former

Class Number	Image	Top Speed (mph)	Price	Carriages	Manufacturer	Train Family	Date Put into SCR	Date Withdrawn From SCR	Routes Operated on
Class 345		90	N/A	7	Bombardier	Aventra	13th December		Stepford Town (Stepford Central) <> Airport Terminals

Depots

Current

• Stepford Airport Parkway Depot
• Stepford Depot
• Leighton Depot

Future

• No future 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 (step-free)
• Stepford East (step-free)
• St Helens Bridge (step-free)
• Elsemere Junction (step-free)
• Berrily (Eastbound journeys only)
• Morganstown (step-free)
• Stepford Airport Parkway
• Stepford Airport Central (step-free)
• Airport Terminal 1 (Journeys to Terminal 2 only) (step-free)
• Airport Terminal 2 (step-free)
• Airport Terminal 3 (step-free)
• Leighton Stepford Road (step-free)

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 second logo and livery are based off Gatwick Express. The first livery on the Class 185 was also commonly mistaken with the Stepford Connect Class 185.
• Between V1.1 and V1.4, Airlink was the only franchise of the two in the game (Connect and Waterline were both part of the Connect franchise prior to V1.5) that had express and stopper routes. However, Stepford Express now shares this trait after its addition in the 1.4 update.
• The scheduled timetable on routes R051 and R052 says that express trains from Stepford Central don't stop until Airport Central, which is around 7.16 miles, making this the greatest distance between two scheduled stations.
• Airlink is first operator to have all paper/legacy trains converted to Next Generation. Stepford Express doesn’t count because its trains were already Next Generation from the start.
• 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 on Stepford Express if you count the locomotives. Airlink also holds the record of the longest train ever in the game (including testing and unreleased trains), the unreleased Class 345, which had 7 coaches.
• Airlink does not use the 2xxx 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 of September 2019 because of the extension to Leighton Stepford Road.
  • Airlink also uses the Stepford Express tracks to Leighton Stepford Road for trains to Leighton Stepford Road and terminate at the same platforms as Stepford Express and Stepford Connect at Leighton Stepford Road (only when Platform 1 has a train on it).
• This operator and Stepford Connect have many stations in common, except for the airport terminals.
• Every Airlink route passes at least one station’s platforms that are in use.
• On Airlink's old map, St Helens Bridge was written as St Helen's Bridge. This was fixed when Airlink got a new map with Version 1.7.
• If you zoom out at T1, T2 or T3, you can see an actual airport.
• It is believed that during 2017, Airlink used to be called "AirExpress", evident from old announcements in the Discord server.
• Ironically, Airlink's HQ can be found at their least used station, which is Berrily.
• This is the first operator to feature First Class sections in trains, followed by Stepford Express.
• Strangely, Leighton Stepford Road was not shown in the selection of spawn locations of Airlink for passengers. They would have to choose either Connect or Express to spawn there. This was fixed in Version 1.7.
• Stepford Airport Central and Stepford Airport Parkway are operated by Airlink.
• Berrily is the only station on the whole of Airlink that is not step-free accessible.
• The most plausible reason why Airlink does not serve the route from Stepford Central to Leighton Stepford Road even though there are tracks at Morganstown for this purpose, is because if this happened, this route will not serve the Airport Zone and it defeats the purpose of Airlink as a whole.
  • However, Stepford Express and Stepford Connect run this service regularly, using the route via Benton instead of Morganstown.
  • Stepford Express uses these tracks since it was extended to Morganstown, which made this station the fourth interchange between Airlink and Stepford Express.
• This operator gives you 3 routes (R052, R053 and R054) when you first purchase a train.
• Even though Morganstown Siding is on tracks used by Airlink, no Airlink service can spawn there, likely because Stepford Airport Parkway Depot is just a bit further away and can spawn trains to Leighton Stepford Road. Only Waterline shuttle services can use it.
• Airlink has had the most logo changes at three.
• This is the first operator with a train that was remade in Blender; the Class 802.
• All Airlink routes goes in the Airport Zone

Class 185 leaving Stepford Depot.

Two Class 755 units and a Class 185 at Leighton Stepford Road.

Legacy Class 185

Class 755 at Leighton Stepford Road on test with BanTech driving.

Two Connect Class 185 units and an Airlink Class 185.

Airlink platforms at the updated Stepford Central.

Two Class 185 units near Morganstown.

Two Class 802 Units at Stepford Central

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