Waterline, stylised as waterline, operates rail services to various districts around Stepford County, such as Connolly, Newry, Newry Harbour, Greenslade, Benton, Morganstown and James Street. A full journey on the main line, which runs from Newry to Benton takes about 5 minutes.
The operator is classified as a regional commuter rail due to its short travel times and the stations it serves. The trains on this route can go as fast as 100 miles per hour, but are limited to 90 miles per hour.
Prior to 1 May 2020, this route was a sub-franchise of Connect, branded as WaterLine and bearing a navy blue colour scheme. It now operates as its own separate franchise and bears a greyish blue colour scheme.
Contents
History
2017
- In October 2017, plans were announced to open a new route as part of Connect, following the mainline from Benton to Port Benton and continuing on to a new branch. Services commenced on 4th December, exclusively using Class 165 and Class 166 units and Morganstown Docks was constructed shortly after.
- On 20th December, services to Newry and Newry Harbour commenced and ex-Connect Class 387 units were introduced.
2018
- On 21 April, Class 171, Class 319 and Class 701 units were introduced and services to Connolly commenced.
- On 18th August, Class 730 units were introduced.
- On 4th April, the Class 323 was announced on Discord with "coming soon" in the announcement, however the train has never been released.
- Throughout December 2018, plans for the future of the route were revealed, including the refurbishment of all Class 165, Class 166 and Class 387 units, the commencement of services to James Street and the overhaul of Faraday Road station.
- All of these changes went into effect on 31st December, including the silent removal of all Class 701 units from services.
2019
- On 14th May, Class 508 units entered service, being the first with Next Generation doors and interiors on the route.
- On 8th June, all Class 387 units were transferred to AirLink, being replaced by Class 379 units also with Next Generation tech.
- On 31st August, all Class 171 units were upgraded with the same tech from the recently introduced units.
2020
- On 22nd February, all Class 319 units were upgraded, and Class 195 units were introduced, already equipped with Next Generation doors and interiors. The platforms at Benton and West Benton received new decor.
- On 18th March, a fourth platform at Morganstown Docks station was constructed, but not put to use.
- On 1st May, the Connect franchise was renewed to no longer include the Waterline route. All Class 165, Class 166, and Class 730 units were upgraded with Next Generation V2 doors and interiors, and became the first trains to bare the new branding introduced with the franchise renewal. All Class 171, Class 195, and Class 379 units were also fitted with the new branding.
- On 2nd May, plans were revealed to retrofit all Class 508 units with the new branding.
- On 22nd June, plans were revealed for an extension to Morganstown via Morganstown Docks. Both of these changes went into effect that same day.
- On 29th October, the NGv3 Class 379 was introduced.
2021
- On 1st January, Whitney Green Depot and Greenslade were overhauled and the Class 379 received a new horn sound.
- On 22nd January, Charlie_RBX posted a poll on the SCR Discord "#voting" channel, either for a (completely new) Stepford Connect extension between Leighton Stepford Road and Llyn-by-the-Sea, or the James Street extension. Both being a one-stop extension.
- 4th July: Plans were revealed for the remodelling of the Class 171 units to the mesh models.
- 7th July: Class 171 units are upgraded to mesh models.
- 5th December: Mesh Class 730 units are introduced, with an updated top speed of 90mph. Scenery at Connolly is overhauled, along with station overhauls of Cambridge Street Parkway, Port Benton and Morganstown Docks. Step free access introduced at Whitney Green, and new sounds on the Class 165, 166 and 171.
- 18th December: New mesh Class 143 revealed and introduced later on the same day. Class 195 and 730 both receive sound overhauls of the doors and motors.
Rolling Stock
Current
| Class Number | Image | Top Speed
(mph) |
Price
(points) |
Carriages | Manufacturer | Train Family | Date Put Into Service | Date converted to NG | Routes Operated On |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diesel multiple-units | |||||||||
| Class 143 | 
|
75 | 2500 | 2
4 (Double) |
Hunslet-Barclay and Walter Alexander | Pacer | 18th December 2021 | All routes (Double variant is unable to do R015) | |
| Class 165/0 | 
|
90 | 2250 | 2 (/0)
4 (/1) |
BREL | Networker | 16th December 2017 | 1st May 2020 [1] | All routes (165/1 is unable to do R015) |
  | |||||||||
| Class 166 | 
|
90 | 2250 | 3 | ABB | All routes except R015 | |||
  | |||||||||
| Class 171 | 
|
100 | 2250 | 2 | Bombardier | Turbostar | 21st April 2018 | 31st August 2019 | All routes |
  | |||||||||
| Class 195 | 
|
100 | 1500 | 2/3 | CAF | Civity | 22nd February 2020 | All routes (195/1 is unable to do R015) | |
  | |||||||||
| Electric multiple-units | |||||||||
| Class 319 | 
|
100 | 2250 | 4 | BREL | Mark 3 | 21st April 2018 | 22nd February 2020 | All routes except R015 |
| Class 379 | 
|
Bombardier | Electrostar | 8th June 2019 | |||||
  | |||||||||
| Class 508 | 
|
75 | 2000 | 3 | BREL | PEP | 14th May 2019 | ||
  | |||||||||
| Class 730/0 | 
|
90 | 1000 | 3 | Bombardier | Aventra | 18th August 2018 | 1st May 2020 | |
Former
| Class Number | Image | Top Speed
(mph) |
Price
(Points) |
Carriages | Manufacturer | Train Family | Date Put Into Service | Date Withdrawn From Service | Routes Operated On | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class 701 | 
|
100 | 3000 | 4 | Bombardier | Aventra | 21st April 2018 | 31st December 2018 | All routes (at that time) | Unsuitability and replaced by Class 730 |
  | ||||||||||
| Class 387 | 
|
110 | 2250 | 4 | Electrostar | 21st December 2017 | 8th June 2019 | Transferred to AirLink and replaced by Class 379 | ||
  | ||||||||||
Future
None at the current moment.
Proposed
| Class Number | Image | Top Speed
(mph) |
Carriages | Manufacturer | Train Family |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class 323 | 
|
90 | 3 | Hunslet | Hyper Networker |
Depots
Current
Future
- None at the current moment.
Former
- None at the current moment.
Sidings
Current
Future
- None at the current moment.
Former
- None at the current moment.
Stations
The map below is interactive: click the stations or operators to see the pages.
Current
- Newry Harbour (♿︎)
- Newry (♿︎, except for Platform 1)
- Eden Quay (♿︎)
- Faraday Road (♿︎)
- West Benton (♿︎)
- Benton (♿︎)
- Port Benton (♿︎)
- Morganstown Docks (♿︎)
- Morganstown (♿︎)
- Whitney Green (♿︎)
- Greenslade (♿︎)
- Cambridge Street Parkway (♿︎)
- Ashlan Park (♿︎)
- Connolly (♿︎)
- Stepford Airport West (♿︎, inverse interchange only)
- James Street (♿︎)
Future
- A single station past James Street.
Former
- There are no closed stations on Waterline.
Routes
| Waterline South | ||
|---|---|---|
| Route | Code | Calling at |
| Newry to Greenslade | R010 | Eden Quay, Faraday Road, West Benton, Benton, Port Benton, Morganstown Docks and Whitney Green. |
| Waterline North | ||
| Route | Code | Calling at |
| Newry to Connolly | R011 | Eden Quay, Faraday Road, West Benton, Benton, Cambridge Street Parkway and Ashlan Park. |
| Newry Harbour to Connolly | R012 | Newry, Eden Quay, Faraday Road, West Benton, Benton, Cambridge Street Parkway and Ashlan Park. |
| Suburban | ||
| Route | Code | Calling at |
| Benton to Greenslade | R013 | Port Benton, Morganstown Docks and Whitney Green. |
| Airport Line | ||
| Route | Code | Calling at |
| Newry to James Street | R014 | Eden Quay, Faraday Road, West Benton, Benton, Cambridge Street Parkway and Stepford Airport West. |
| Morganstown Shuttle | ||
| Route | Code | Calling at |
| Benton to Morganstown | R015 | Port Benton and Morganstown Docks. |
Trivia
- Waterline is named after water because it's service runs along the River Ben.
- Sometimes, Waterline is crowded on purpose by players. This is considered "Waterline flooding."
- Driving Waterline is the best way to earn/grind points, as most of the stations are significantly close to each other, and there are a number of routes.
- Many players agree that this operator is 'dead' due to major updates which seem to leave out Waterline, however this is changing recently, with more station overhauls and the anticipated James Street Extension in progress.
- This is the only operator that does not skip any stations.
- This is the only operator where some trains can never hit their top speed at any point on the line without breaking the speed limits.
- The only Waterline and Stepford Express interchanges are Benton and Morganstown.
- Before 1.7, Benton used to be the only Stepford Express interchange.
- Likewise, the only Waterline and AirLink interchange is at Morganstown.
- This operator used to be part of Connect, but it no longer is due to Waterline becoming a separate franchise.
- This operator has the least amount of depots and sidings, only 4: Faraday Road Depot, Whitney Green Depot, Morganstown Siding and Benton Siding. Before V1.7, every Waterline route except R010 had only one depot.
- In V1.7, Benton Siding opened and now R010 is the only route with 3 places to spawn.
- This operator, along with Stepford Connect, are the last operators to see their trains upgraded to Next Generation. This operator also had the most Previous Generation trains prior to Version 1.5.
- This is the only operator that does not serve Stepford City Zone or call at Stepford Central.
- Newry Harbour was also going to serve trains to James Street, but the developers wanted to keep the station as small as possible.
- James Street had no buffers before V1.6, but they were added in V1.6, most likely temporarily. Before V1.6, if you overshot the platform, your train would be immediately despawned with the despawn message saying "Invalid track detected.", but this message is no longer able to be seen because of the buffer being added. BanTech said on Discord that this was to prevent drivers from losing their experience for that route.
- James Street as of 20/12/2021 currently has no ticket machines, barriers or CIS boards.
- Before V1.6, R010 used every depot on Waterline, but because of the Morganstown Shuttle being added, a siding was added at Morganstown.
- The Class 730 is the most common train to be seen on Waterline because of it's price.
- The Class 195 was the first train on Waterline with coach variants, and the Class 165 was the first train on Waterline with a double configuration, and the second overall in SCR.
- The Class 701 was removed because it didn't suit the line.
- Waterline has the least amount of routes as of V1.7 (only 6 routes).
- Before V1.7, Stepford Express had the least amount of routes, exactly 5 routes. The update brought the operator 3 new routes, passing both Waterline and Airlink in the number of routes.
- Waterline is the only operator to own lettered platforms as of V1.7. Newry is only a Waterline station, having platforms 2A and 2B, while platforms 5A and 5B in Morganstown are only for Waterline trains.
- The first Waterline livery was based off the Great Western Railway livery.
- Waterline has the most double units than any other operator, 2. These comprise of the Class 165 and Class 143, both 4-cars.
Notes
- ↑ 165/1 was added on this date as NG, before then there was only the 165/0.
