Contents
Overview
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 and a terminus at Llyn-by-the-Sea.
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.
A full journey from Stepford Central to Llyn-by-the-Sea takes about 23 minutes. The line is coloured dark magenta on network maps.
History
2018
When the game opened, there was 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 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 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? 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 for Express[1], and 2 new trains: the Class 43 and the Class 801.
2020
On the 22nd of Feburary, Faymere Green TMD depot was added and Westwyvern was upgraded having Express signs instead of 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.
Rolling Stock
Current Fleet
| Class Number | Image | Top Speed
(mph) |
Price (Points) | Carriages | Manufacturer | Train Family | Date Put Into Service | Routes Operated On |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class 43 | 
|
125 | 4 |
British Rail Engineering Limited |
InterCity 125 | 17th December 2019 | ||
| Class 220 | 
|
4 | Bombardier Transportation | Voyager | 15th April 2020 | |||
| Class 221 | 
|
Purchased along with Class 220 | 5 | Super Voyager | ||||
| Class 801 | 
|
5 | Hitachi | A-Train AT300 (Azuma) | 17th December 2019 | |||
  |
||||||||
Former
- None at the moment
Future
- None at the moment
Depots
Current
- Stepford Depot
- Leighton Depot
- Faymere Green TMD (Northbound)
- Faymere Green TMD (Southbound)
- Northshore Depot
- Coxly Bypass Siding
Former
- None at the moment.
Future
- None at the moment.
Stations
Current
- Stepford Central (step-free)
- St Helens Bridge (step-free)
- Benton
- Leighton Stepford Road (step-free)
- Leighton City (step-free)
- Edgemead (step-free)
- Westwyvern (step-free)
- Northshore
- Llyn-by-the-Sea (step-free)
Former
- None at the moment.
Future
- None at the moment.
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.
- A significant portion of the tracks have been or are already in use. Before Angel Pass was given a service, 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 Connect. Also, Airlink trains uses the Express tracks between just west of Hampton Hargate to Leighton Stepford Road since the Five Million Update.
- The Class 43 holds the record for the longest train in SCR along with the double Airlink Class 185.
- The Class 801 is exactly the same as the Class 802 running on Airlink, with the exception of class numbers, liveries, operators, maximum speeds and lengths.
- The routes with least station skipping is R079, which doesn't skip any stations.
- Stepford Express serves the least amount of stations of any operator on the network, at 9 stations.
- Stepford Connect stops at every one of the 9 stations that Stepford Express stops at. 4 of those 9 have Connect and Express share Platforms (Leighton Stepford Road, Leighton City, Edgemead, and Llyn-by-the-Sea).
- The headquarters of this operator cannot be found, and many people speculate that if one was opened, it would be located somewhere between Edgemead and Llyn-by-the-Sea.
- A Class 91 (InterCity 225) was actually supposed to run on the line, evident in a showcase of future SCR trains made by PDV OverheadWires, but due to his resignation in 2019, the units were never completed and were never put into service. It's unknown if this train will be put into service.
- This is the only operator in SCR where all trains share the same maximum speed.
- This is the second operator to feature First Class sections in trains, the first operator is Airlink.
- This is the only operator that all trains were Next Generation from the start.
- The colour of this franchise was going to be orange, but instead it's dark magenta. 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.
- The current map as of V1.5 is outdated, as it doesn't contain R079 (Stepford Central - Benton via St Helens Bridge).
- The only Waterline and Express interchange is Benton.
- This is the only operator in SCR to have no trains with double doorways.
- This is also the only operator to have no trains with 3 coaches or less.
- There are only S car stop markers at stations on this operator, no stations have specific coach markers.
- 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.
- As of V1.5, This is currently is the only operator in SCR to have a logo that is not renewed.
- This is the only operator with trains without functioning cab doors for Guards.
- This is the only operator where tracks do not split off in different directions. Airlink used to have this trait until Airport Terminal 3 opened.
References
<references>
