CityExpress

The CityExpress is a System of High-Speed Trains predominantly running in Kingston and Boyce and Canada. It is the highest service category offered by Kingston Royal Rails and and the flagship of it. There are currently 125 trainsets in two different versions of the CityExpress in use, named CE-2 (deployed in 1999) and CE-3 (2005). Both versions were produced by a consortium of Bombardier and Siemens, and are similar to the German ICE 3 and ICE-T trains.

History
Kingston‘s late 1980s news were dominated by jammed highways, overcrowded and unconfortable trains, the VIEW described travelling ,a drag‘. In 1983 Traffic Minister Joelle Moses sat down with Kingston Royal Rails and Siemens of Germany to discuss to pro and contra of a trans-national high speed rail network, similar to Germany‘s developing ICE-Network. Following the talks, Moses set a commsion to work to analyze the need, to benefit and possible burdens coming with enposing a high speed network and how many lines or trains would be needed to make it profitable. Two years later, the commision published the outcome of a survey among Kingstonaises, with a majority of 93% voting for an improvement of the Rail Network. At the same point it was stated that a High Speed Network would be benefitial to both economy and travelling service. However, it was not possible to let the trains run on the old tracks, as they had either too short curves or too steep slopes. Also, the tracks were not equipped for speed of more than 150km/h. Nonetheless, the plans were handed out to Kingston Royal Rails and work began on a transnational High Speed Line linking all major cities on June 24th, 1986.

At the same point, Germany had its ICE-Trains tested enough to take test runs, setting up world speed records for vehicles on rails. Those test revealed one significant fault of Kingston‘s future network: The market was simply not big enough. With only almost 4 Million people living on the Islands, a major HSR Network would not be carrying enough people to be at one point attractive enough for customers and one the other point be profitable for the company. It was decided to ice the project for some years to recalculate the market value of such a network. However, construction on the tracks did not stop and the transnational route was finished on Sep 11th, 1996. It took more than ten years to cross the country with a new railline, the longest construction time for any new rail line at that moment. Cynics said that work was done so slowly because of knowing that there was no due date until when the work had to be done.

After construction was done, only some test runs with German engines used the tracks. Those test runs revealed that the tracks were perfect for extreme high speeds of up to 300km/h. On March 1st, 1997, Traffic Minister Lloyd Charger announced the rebirth of the CityExpress Project. Kingston Royal Rails was requested to begin talks with Siemens and Bombardier for constructing the vehicles. In 1998, a Prototype was sent to Kingston, the so called CE-1 (CityExpress-1), a German IC train equipped with a DB Class 120 towing 7 cars. Although this did not represent the engines constructed at Siemens and Bombardier, the prototype ran in Kingston and Boyce for about 1 month. The train travelled the country with test passengers on board to train the train personel for service. The train ran every possible route in the country, visiting cities where normally no CityExpress would be expected.

On December 11th, 1998 the first CE-2 engine was delivered to Kingston and presented to the public. The CE-2 is like the German ICE 3, just equipped with a stronger engine and it is better prepared for Kingston‘s Moisture, with a special cover around the engines. Test runs took place until December 30th, 1998 and no serious problems were discovered.

On New Year‘s Eve 1998, a ceremony in Kingston‘s Central Station sent the first CityExpress on its way to Port Ruppert at 10.15 in the morning. There it arrived at 12.34 in the afternoon, so the train took 2 hours and 19 minutes to travel a distance of about 420km. One Year later, the Tunnel was opened and service to Vancouver began. The Tunnel is a 165km long tunnel in the Pacific Ocean. It is held at a constant depth of 50m below surface level and features three seperate tunnels, one for each direction and one for escape reasons. It takes a CE-2 engine 33 minutes to cross it at a speed of 300km/h.

Trains
The CityExpress is using two different trainsets, the CE-2 and the CE-3. Both are equipped for speeds of up to 300km/h. The draw their power from overhead cartenary lines with 600V.