Stepford Express

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Overview

Stepford Express, commonly being called Express, is the highspeed rail link between major cities and zones such as Benton, Leighton, and Llyn-by-the-Sea. It currently has 2 trains (more in future updates) and 4 routes. All 4 routes originate at Stepford Central.

History

2017

When the game was originally released, a line known as HighSpeed was planned. The tracks for it were laid, from Stepford Victoria via a now lifted line which took it onto the Morganstown Branch via Berrily Denton Road which is now planned to be part of TramLink, over the unused southern section of Morganstown Junction and along the Stepford Main Line to Llyn-by-the-Sea. However, the plan was changed to Express today, and most of the old infrastructure was removed.

2018

First traces of Express could be seen as far back as January 7th, where a new express line was built. The works included new Platforms 5 & 6 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 the Metro project 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 December 22nd, 2018, BanTech mentioned that Express will NOT be coming in V1.1 as they prioritized AirLink and not Express, hinting that Express would be coming in future updates.

2019

On May 11th, 2019, 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 and 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, 2019, V1.4 came out with Express, 4 new routes, and 2 new trains: Class 43 and Class 801.

2020

On Feburary 22, Faymere Green TMD depot was added and Westwyvern upgraded having Express signs instead of Connect. On March 18, Stepford Central received its second upgrade of the year making it look very modern. On March 26, a unconfirmed train was revealed but the community quickly identified it as a Bombadier Voyager Train and it was believed to be in use on Stepford Express. On March 28, a photo of three Bombadier Voyager Trains at Stepford Central was revealed. It is confirmed that two of them is Class 221 and one of them is a Class 220 on Twitter.

Rolling Stock

Current Fleet

Class Number	Maximum Speed	Price	Number of Coaches	Routes Operated On	Manufacturer	Train Family	Date Put Into Service
Class 43	125 MPH	2250 Points	4 with 2 locomotives, making it 6 cars	All routes	British Rail Engineering Limited	InterCity125	December 17th 2019
Class 801	125 MPH	1688 Points	5 cars	All routes	Hitachi	A-Train AT300(Azuma)	December 17th 2019

Former

• None at the moment.

Future

Class Number	Maximum Speed	Number of Coaches	Manufacturer/Train Family	Date revealed
Class 220	125 MPH	4 cars	Bombardier Transportation/Voyager	March 28th 2020
Class 221	125 MPH	5 cars	Bombardier Transportation/Voyager	March 28th 2020

Depots

Current

• Stepford Depot
• Leighton Depot
• Faymere Green TMD (Northbound)
• Faymere Green TMD (Southbound)
• Northshore Depot

Former

• None at the moment.

Future

• None at the moment

 Stations

Current

• Stepford Central
• St Helens Bridge
• Benton
• Leighton Stepford Road
• Leighton City
• Edgemead
• Westwyvern
• Northshore
• Llyn-by-the-Sea

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 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 used 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.
• This is the 2nd operator to feature "bullet trains" as the first was AirLink.
• Every station that Express route skip plays the "The Train now approaching Platform x, does not stop here. Please stand back from the Platform edge." announcement.
• The routes with least station skipping are R075 which skips St Helens Bridge and R076 which skips Rocket Parade.
• 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). Stepford Express services is a part of Stepford Connect, the other operator is WaterLine.
• The headquarters of this operator cannot be found, and many people speculate that if ever a headquarter is opened, it would be located somewhere between Edgemead and Llyn-by-the-Sea.
• A Class 91 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 the units were never completed and were never put into service. It's unknown if someone else would finish the model of the train and put it 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 only one of two operators to only to feature Next Generation trains, the other operator is AirLink.
• The colour of this route was going to be orange, but instead it's purple. The orange route is AirLink.
• There are platforms for Express at Millcastle Racecourse and Millcastle, however no services call there.

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