Stepford Express, or Express for short, is one of the four operators in Stepford County Railway. It links Stepford Central with many major urban areas, namely Benton, Leighton, Morganstown and a terminus at Llyn-by-the-Sea. On 15 May 2022, Stepford Express began serving the Newry Zone, Eden Quay and Westercoast.
Stepford Express is classified as high-speed rail, due to the fact that it skips the majority of stations along its line that are operated by Stepford Connect. It uses rolling stock that are specially designed for high-speed lines, with speeds up to a maximum of 125 miles per hour. However, due to its recent changes which involved having the line stop at the smaller stations of Westercoast, Eden Quay and Newry Harbour, this operator could now be classified as semi-high-speed on these routes.
A full journey from Stepford Central to Llyn-by-the-Sea (using R077) takes about 23 minutes, while a faster, more nonstop version can do the route (using route R078) in 22 minutes. A much more nonstop route can make the journey (using route R081) in 17 minutes. The line is coloured pink on network maps as of V1.7. Before that, the line was coloured deep violet .
Contents
History
2018
When the game opened, there were plans for an operator named High Speed. It was cancelled and fast services are now express. First traces of Express could be seen as far back as the 7th of January, where a new express line was built. The works included new Platforms 5A, 5B, 5C, 6A and 6B at Benton, passing tracks through Coxly and Bodin, and Platforms 1 & 2 at the Pre-V1.1 Stepford East abandoned, later removed to make way for the passing line. The platforms were shifted. Stepford Connect was rerouted via Angel Pass due to the cancellation of Metro and the old line that bypassed Angel Pass was allocated for Express. Works also happened east of Benton, where a linking line from Benton to the fast lines near Hampton Hargate was built.
On the 22nd of December, BanTech mentioned that Express would not be coming in V1.1 as they prioritized AirLink and not Express, hinting that Express would be coming in future updates.
2019
On the 11th of May, BanTech unveiled the roadmap. Under Q3 of 2019, it mentioned the Express line, which got people hyped because they would be getting Express over the summer.
Express wasn't mentioned again until the 22nd of September when BanTech announced that the Stepford Connect extension to Llyn-by-the-Sea, as well as the Express line, were delayed.
On the 29th of September, Mattyx2013 showed off Faymere and commented "This station will be served by Stepford Connect but is a cool place to watch Express trains pass at speed!". On the 5th of October, Charlie showed Northshore and commented "Fancy a wander on the beach? Stepford Connect and Express can help you out with that! Introducing Northshore". This confirmed to the public that Express was skipping Faymere yet stopping at Northshore.
On the 18th of October, Mattyx2013 showed Llyn-by-the-Sea and a Class 43 for Express, which got the public hyped up again and confirmed Express was stopping at Llyn. Finally, on the 25th of November, BanTech showed a picture of the Class 43 at Stepford Central.
On the 17th of December, V1.4.0 came out with Express, 4 routes (R075, R076, R077 and R078) and 2 new trains: the Class 43 and the Class 801.
2020
On the 22nd of Feburary, Faymere Green TMD was added and Westwyvern was upgraded having Express signs instead of Stepford Connect, making it the first station having Express signage. On the 18th of March, Stepford Central received its second upgrade of the year making it look very modern. On the 26th of March, an unconfirmed train was revealed, but the community quickly identified it as a Bombardier Voyager train and it was believed to be in use on Stepford Express. 2 days later, a photo of three Bombardier Voyager trains at Stepford Central was revealed. It was confirmed that two of them was a Class 221 and one of them was a Class 220 on Twitter. Both of these trains were released on the 15th of April, with 1 new route also being added.
On the 3rd of October, a sneak peak was released on the SCR Official Discord server of a small snippet of the map presumably for V1.7. At a quick glance, it looks like Express will be rebranded and going via Morganstown starting in that update and Morganstown will become the first station to serve all 4 operators in the game.
The sneak peek posted by tpx_jm.
On the 10th of October, Head of Brand Design tpx_jm released a sneak peek of the new express livery of the rebranded Express logo.
On the 28th of October, Managing Director Charlie_RBX posted a sneak peek of the upgraded Class 801 in the new Express livery.
On the 29th of October, V1.7 was released. Included in the update were 3 new routes (R080, R081 and R082) that run via Morganstown.
The new livery is currently available on the Class 801 and the HST, with the Class 220 and 221 being projected for possible future refurbishment.
2021
On the 19th of February, 1.7.2 was released, which brought along an upgrade of the Class 43 to NGv3, as well as adding a buffered HST variant and the first 7-car train, the 5-car HST variant, making it the longest train in the game. Unique stop markers for these trains have been added at Benton and Westwyvern.
2022
On the 27th of February, a sneak-peek of the updated Class 220/Class 221 was released. Later that same day, Version 1.8.3 released, containing mesh-upgrades of the Voyager, making Stepford Express the first operator in SCR to have a fully meshed fleet.
On the 1st of April, a photo was released, showcasing an HST stopping at Newry Harbour. Despite players thinking it was just a joke, as the photo was released on April Fools, Stepford Express started serving at Newry Harbour since V1.9.
On the 12th of May, a sneak-peek showed a Voyager and a HST at a Waterline station (presumed to be Newry), leading players to believe that Stepford Express will receive an extension over the Newry branch (which is highly speculated to receive a full overhaul) in the near future.
On the 15th of May, V1.9 was released, extending the operator to Newry Harbour, Newry and Eden Quay, adding 4 new routes (R083, R084, R085, R086). Additionally, Stepford Express now also stops at Westercoast via R083.
Rolling Stock
Current Fleet
| Class Number | Image | Top Speed
(mph) |
Price (Points) | Carriages | Manufacturer | Train Family | Date Put Into Service | Routes Operated On |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HST (Class 43) | 
|
125 | 3000
(800 per variant after unlocking) |
4 (Standard and Buffer)
5 (5-Car) |
British Rail Engineering Limited | InterCity 125 | 17th December 2019
(5-car and buffer: 19th February 2021) |
|
| Class 220 | 
|
2250 | 4 | Bombardier Transportation | Voyager | 15th April 2020 | 12 routes [Note 1] | |
| Class 221 | 
|
Purchased along with Class 220 | 5 | Super Voyager | ||||
| Class 801 | 
|
2250 | Hitachi | A-Train AT300 (Azuma) | 17th December 2019 |
Former
- None at the moment
Future
- None at the moment
Train Models
| Train Models | NGv1 | NGv2 (CSG Model) | NGv3 (Mesh Model) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage | 0% of fleet | 0% of fleet | 100% of fleet |
| Number | 0 | 0 | 4 |
*Main train and variants are considered one train.
Depots and sidings
Current
- Stepford Depot
- Coxly Bypass Siding
- Leighton Depot
- Faymere Green TMD (Northbound)
- Faymere Green TMD (Southbound)
- Northshore Depot
- Newry Siding
- Faraday Road TMD
Former
- None at the moment.
Future
- None at the moment.
Stations
The map below is interactive: click the stations or operators to see the pages.
Current
- Stepford Central (♿︎)
- St Helens Bridge (♿︎)
- Newry Harbour (♿︎)
- Newry (♿︎)
- Eden Quay (♿︎, platform 2 is only)
- Benton (♿︎)
- Elsemere Junction (♿︎)
- Morganstown (♿︎)
- Leighton Stepford Road (♿︎)
- Leighton City (♿︎)
- Edgemead (♿︎)
- Westercoast (♿︎)
- Westwyvern (♿︎)
- Northshore (♿︎)
- Llyn-by-the-Sea (♿︎)
Former
- None at the moment.
Future
- None at the moment.
Routes
Criticism
Stepford Express has been criticised by some players for being "rushed", with their evidence being that (when the operator was originally released) there were only 2 trains, and not even that, but the Class 43 was very blocky and underdetailed and the Class 801's model being copy-and-pasted over from Airlink. The livery was often criticized for not seeming to make any sense and being different on each train, with an LNER-style purple line along the side of the Class 801 while a fading angled edge was used on the Class 43, with a completely different style used on the Class 220 and 221. However, lots of the criticism diminished with the 1.7 update and its companions as the livery was refreshed to look much more modern along with the Class 801 and 43 being updated to much more detailed mesh models, as well as the run through Morganstown being opened.
Trivia
- Matty's sneak peek of Starryloch showed a fragment of a purple-coloured train, which aroused speculation that it could be an Express train. It was later revealed to be the Class 43 HST alongside the long-waited Llyn-by-the-Sea sneak peek.
- This is the only operator without a train belonging to the Electrostar family (i.e. Class 377, Class 387) on its fleet.
- Prior to the introduction of Stepford Express, the majority of their tracks had been or were already in use. Before Angel Pass was given a service, Stepford Connect trains used the express middle tracks between Coxly and Benton. Platforms 1-3 at Stepford Town (Stepford Central) and Platforms 1-2 at St Helens Bridge were formerly used by Stepford Connect. Also, AirLink trains uses the Express tracks between just west of Hampton Hargate to Leighton Stepford Road since the Five Million Update.
- The 5 car Class 43 holds the record since v1.7.2 for the longest train in SCR, beating the AirLink Class 185 (Double) by one carriage.
- The Class 801 is exactly the same as the Class 802 running on AirLink, with the exception of class numbers, liveries, fully electric, rather than bimode, and different operators.
- The route with the least station skipping is R079, which doesn't skip any stations stopped at by Express.
- Stepford Express serves the least amount of stations of any operator on the network, at 15 stations. All of these 15 stations are also served by other operators, making Express the only operator that does not have any uniquely served stations.
- Prior to v1.9, however, Stepford Express only served 11 stations, of which all were also served by Stepford Connect. 4 of those 11 had Stepford Connect and Stepford Express share platforms, namely Leighton Stepford Road, Leighton City, Edgemead, and Westwyvern (terminating services only). Llyn-by-the-Sea used to have this feature as well before its revamp in V1.7.2.
- Since v1.9, R083 services call at Westercoast, making it the twelfth Connect - Express interchange station.
- As of v1.9, Stepford Express shares five stations with Waterline, being Benton, Eden Quay, Newry, Newry Harbour and Morganstown. Stepford Express and Waterline share platforms at all of them except Morganstown.
- A Class 91 (InterCity 225) was actually supposed to run on the line, evident in a showcase of future SCR trains made by former PDV OverheadWires, but due to his resignation in 2019, the units were never completed. It is currently unknown whether this project will be started again.
- If this train was put into service, it would be the third locomotive-hauled train in the game, as well as the first push-pull train, as the Class 43 locomotives are technically power cars, and the Class 68 involves a locomotive at either end instead of a locomotive and a Driving Van Trailer (DVT). However, it is planned to include a DVT with the Class 68 in the future.
The message from BanTech showing the plans to include a DVT with the Class 68
- If this train was put into service, it would be the third locomotive-hauled train in the game, as well as the first push-pull train, as the Class 43 locomotives are technically power cars, and the Class 68 involves a locomotive at either end instead of a locomotive and a Driving Van Trailer (DVT). However, it is planned to include a DVT with the Class 68 in the future.
- This is the only operator in SCR where all trains share the same maximum speed of 125mph.
- This is the second operator to feature First Class sections in trains, the first operator is AirLink.
- This is the only operator where all trains were Next Generation from the initial release.
- The colour of this franchise was planned to be orange, but it received a dark magenta colour scheme upon release. The orange franchise is AirLink.
- There are platforms for Express at Millcastle Racecourse and Millcastle, however, no services call there. This could be changed in a future update, either with services or the platforms being removed.
- This is the only operator in SCR to have no trains with double doorways and commuter-style trains.
- This is also the only operator to have no trains with 3 coaches or less.
- This operator used to pass at least one station on every route on an in-use platform, but when V1.4.6 was released, R079 was added, and that route doesn't skip any stations on in-use platforms, so now only AirLink has this trait.
- This is the only operator with trains without functioning cab doors for Guards.
- It is also the only operator without a train where the local door is the penultimate door of the last car of the train. The Class 801 does not use its dummy door in its first class compartment so it is not counted as a functional door.
- Before V1.7, this was the only operator where tracks do not split off in different branches. The tracks now split in V1.7 with routes via Morganstown. AirLink used to have this trait until Airport Terminal 3 opened.
- This is the only operator where the line splits into two separate lines and rejoin at a separate point.
- This was the last operator to get a rebrand, after AirLink.
- This operator serves the route with the most stations being skipped; R081, which only stops at 3 stations covering a total distance of 24.3 miles.
- This is the only operator where all their routes are named instead of their two terminating stations. This is probably because all Stepford Express routes start at Stepford Central. Waterline also has this trait with R015 being named “Morganstown Shuttle”, the only one to have that name variant.
- This is the only operator for having no unique stations it exclusively calls at.
- The least used station on the line is Elsemere Junction with only one route serving this station. Previously, Leighton City also only had one route serving it, before it became the main station of the Leighton area in version 1.8.
- However, Elsemere Junction isn’t shown in Stepford Express’ spawn page as a passenger. This was also the case for Leighton Stepford Road for AirLink before V1.7. This issue was fixed in V1.8.
- This is the only operator to not serve the Airport Zone.
- Prior to 1.7.2, Stepford Express had no headquarters. After V1.7.2, it got its own headquarters, at Llyn-by-the-Sea, as part of the latter's upgrade.
- This is the only operator to not have any depots/sidings that exclusively spawns its trains.
- Stepford Express operates the lowest amount of rolling stock types in their fleet, with only 4 different classes.
- The conversion of the Class 220 and 221 trains to NGv3 in V1.8.3 makes Stepford Express the first and only operator to have an exclusively mesh-only fleet.
- It is the most expensive operator in the game at the starting price of 2250 Points.
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