Metro Line 1 (4th Haven)

WolvHaven Metro Line 1 - City Line
Palais De Royal
Overview
Type	Rapid Transit
System	WolvHaven Metro (4th Haven)
Status	Semi-Auto. Press a button/step on a pressure plate to spawn a train.
Termini	Palais De Royal Mechanicsburg
Stations	9 (Operational) 1 (Decommissioned)
Services	1
Operation
Opened	July 2014; 6 years ago
Operator(s)	TransHaven
Character	Underground (Palais De Royal - Mechanicsburg)
Depot(s)	Palais De Royal Mechanicsburg
Rolling stock	PM25AM/A PM25BM/A PM25CM/A PM05 (formerly) PM10 (formerly) PM20 (formerly) SM05 (formerly) SM10 (formerly) SM20 (formerly) SM25A (formerly)
Technical
Line Length	5.98 km (3.7mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	750 V DC Third rail
Operating speed	limit of 72km/h (45 mph)
Route Map

The WolvHaven Metro Line 1 is a WolvHaven Metro line that runs in a North-South orientation serving the boroughs of Wolfminster and Mechanicsburg. Originally Built to serve Central WolvHaven, the line initially had 4 stations (Palais De Royal - Nation), but has since been expanded to reach multiple core districts.

Metro Line 1's route follows a straight line along 4th Avenue in the historic district, then makes a turn east as it enters the Central Business District following 2nd Avenue, passing by Admiralty, and La Resistance, until it reaches the main industrial district in Mechanicsburg, accessible by it's northern terminus, Mechanicsburg Interchange. Before being converted into Semi-Automatic Operation, 24 trains used to operate along the line with a 2.5 minute headway between each train.

Officially known as the City Line, Metro Line 1 takes a strikingly bold and vibrant shade of yellow on the official WolvHaven Metro Map, making it easy to be distinguished and identified.

Overview

Metro Line 1 is coloured yellow in the WolvHaven Metro system map.

As the name implies, Metro Line 1 was the first ever WolvHaven Metro line to be created in the previous WolvHaven world. It runs completely underground, starting off at Palais De Royal located at the southernmost part of Wolfminster, and ending at Mechanicsburg Station located in Mechanicsburg island. Travelling from one end of the line to the other takes about half an hour.

History

First phase of development

Metro Line 1 was the first Metro Line to be built in WolvHaven, with the first section from Palais De Royal to Republic opening in 2014. The line was extended northward to Nation later that year. With trains running smoothly from Palais De Royal to Nation, the line was officially opened to the public, once construction began on the Metro Line 2.

Second phase of development

With the first phase of the Metro Line 2 being completed, construction once again began on the Metro Line 1, extending the train line from the now defunct Nation Station, to Admiralty, extending the total amount of stations on the Metro Line by two.

Metro Line 1 Extension project

With the release of the most recent WolvHaven Metro map on the 27th of September 2016, a rough idea of the Metro Line 1 extension was included, leaving commuters speculation on what the actual route M1 would take. With Lorem Ipsum Corporation ( then Temasaac Holdings ), FTrans, and the Department of Transportation's joint press release on 10 October 2017, it was stated that Metro Line 1 would have a total of 2 brand new stations, that being Highgate and Mechanicsburg stations. On April 12 2018, the extension was fully opened to the public.

This extension came rather late as SilverWolv originally intended for line 1 to exclusively serve the borough of Wolfminster only.

Abandonment of Nation Station

With the extension of the Metro Line 1 to Admiralty, a brand new station, Renaissance, was opened to the public. While Renaissance station was praised by the public, for its grand interior, its convenience, and for it being easy to navigate, Renaissance station was also extremely close to another station, the previous northern terminus for Metro Line 1, Nation. With the extreme closeness of these two stations, trains needing to stop at both of them meant travellers had to spend an extra two minutes in commute. With the extreme convenience of Renaissance station, with its prime location and connection to Metro Line 3, it was decided that Nation station was instead to be disused, and abandoned. 4 years later after its abandonment in 2014, Nation station was decided to be repurposed into a railway museum and cafe.

Timeline

• Q2 2014 Palais De Royal - Nation
• Q3 2014 Nation - Financial Centre
• Q3 2014 Financial Centre - La Resistance
• Q4 2014 Decommissioning of Nation station
• April 12, 2018 La Resistance - Mechanicsburg

Improvement Works

FASTRACK

Metro Line 1 was the first to come under the FASTRACK programme. This included a brand new control centre and track diagram which shows the location of each train, displaying the countdown it takes for the train to arrive at a station with the train's code on signs along the diagram. This allowed line managers to easily check if there is any train breakdown which leads to a more reliable service. FASTRACK also included a brand new method of operations whereby a train is replaced each time it completes one trip on the line leading to an increase of service availability and reliability from 50% back to 90%.

City Hall Realignment and Revamp

In 2016, the Northbound Line 1 Platform was rebuilt by GukkyGukz and relocated below the Southbound Line 1 Platform due to multiple complaints on how the Northbound platform was too inconvenient and inaccessible. The previous alignment required the passenger to climb another flight of stairs to reach the platform. The new platform featured the new Platform Screen Doors with the Gray Panels and the Line's Route Map. Because of this realignment, the station is fully step-free when a lift entrance and exit was built by autobus22. The Platform Screen doors in City Hall were all refurbished except for the Southbound Line 1 Platform and the Line 4 Platform.

Abandoned Extensions

3rd Street Branch

Branching out from the main route starting at Renaissance station, the 3rd Street Branch, by it's name, was a Branch line running under 3rd Street. It had three stations and roughly a kilometre of track running underground. However, as this branch was built during the Revolution Era, its construction was cut short, meaning each station had no entrances or exits and were barely furnished. Plans were made to convert the area into a recreation area with shops, a park, and a lake where the tracks were. However, since then, the 3rd Street Branch has been repurposed into a low budget training facility for up and coming train drivers.

Metro Line 1 Southern Extension project

Before the land reclaim project that the current WolvHaven International Airport sits on, there was a plan for there to be a fourth island, located below Wolfminster and Westford, parallel to Mechanicsburg. This has since been abandoned. However, before this project was abandoned, there were plans to extend the Metro Line 1 beyond Palais De Royal, towards the south west, terminating just below Westford island.

Stations

Station	Image	Island	Connections/Notes
Palais De Royal		Wolfminster
City Hall
Republic
Nation			Disused
Renaissance
Admiralty
Financial Centre
La Resistance
Northgate		Mechanicsburg
Mechanicsburg

Route

Rolling Stock

• M5
• M10
• M20
• M25A
• M25BA
• M25CA
• M25DA

The WolvHaven Metro Line 1 currently uses the latest M25CA rolling stock with a capacity of 25 people per train. The M25CA (standing for Metro 25 model C Automatic) is a rubber tyred train with a maximum speed of 0.6 b/t (blocks per tick) compared to the previous M25BA which has a maximum speed of 0.4 b/t.

A new variant of rolling stock was introduced in 2021 when the line was upgraded to have improved curves. This was to be called M25DA, with a design speed of 85km/h and maximum speed of 70km/h (approximately 0.98b/t).

Incidents and upgrades

Chronic Unreliability

The WolvHaven Metro Line 1 is the oldest rail line in the city, making it the hardest and most troublesome line in the entire system. The reliability of the line has fallen to 50% compared to 90% previously. Commuters in WolvHaven often refer to it as "The Troublesome 1" as it often has problems and breakdowns, causing people to avoid the line. However, since the FASTRACK upgrades, line 1 has become more reliable and efficient. Allowing for trains to run at a maximum frequency of 1 minute per train during special events and at normal frequency of 2 minutes per train.

Step-free access

All stations on the line except Palais De Royal and Republic are wheelchair accessible. At first, none of the stations were accessible. Gradually, feasibility studies were taken and lifts were introduced one by one into each station. City Hall was the first to receive, with its date installed unknown. La Resistance M1 platforms got its lifts and a ramp connection to the M2 concourse in April 2019. As part of the accessibility programme, lifts were also installed at Renaissance on 7 June 2019, as well as Financial Center and Admiralty on 6 December 2019.

Unattended backpack terrorism scare

On the 19th of April, 2017, a backpack was left unattended near one of the charging points in City Hall Metro Station, leaving the entire station to be evacuated and trains not stopping at City Hall station. The incident was cleared within the hour.

Trivia

• Renaissance is the only station to have an east-west alignment along the line.
• Republic station is very close to Government District station in terms of their entrances.
• City Hall’s original northbound platform is still there, with everything still intact, except the lights, which have been taken out. You can see it from the current southbound platforms. They are straight across.