Foreword to the Story
As anyone who has read my last few stories will have no doubt realised by now, I like writing about European-style rail and trains. RWBY has had my attention on this for a while, as they (trains) are never really mentioned or used in the story beyond a plot device. There is no casual mention of taking the Tube to or from Beacon, nothing to suggest that people get around Vale by rail - in fact, nothing at all to indicate that Vale or any other kingdom has anything even resembling a functional public transport system. The only time I've seen trains mentioned in the show is when travelling between kingdoms, or used as a plot device e.g. Mountain Glenn. This is not surprising, given the show was written in the U.S. - hardly a leader or even top 50 in the world for passenger rail - for a largely U.S. audience. As a result, trains are pretty much non-existent in Remnant.
I want to change that.
This story will not be everyone's cup of tea. It will not be overly exciting, it won't focus much on the main cast for the first few chapters at least, with the exception of Jaune Arc, and it will not be written from a main character's POV. It will be heavy on technical detail, managerial grumblings, and... well, trains. It is not likely to be one of those stories that mirrors canon. It is not planned. It may take the form of coupled one-shots, or a coherent narrative. There will be time skips. A lot of time skips.
I will be making references to the source material for a lot of my inspiration for things in the world (e.g. trains or routes) at the end of the chapters. These will come in the form of footnotes. For example:
The train was sleek and shiny, and impossibly long.* It... yada yada
[End of chapter]
*Class 345 Aventra, UK.
That's how chapters and footnotes will be structured. If you like this, against all odds, please do feel free to review, favourite, follow, and all that shit - it really does help, and motivate me - and please do check out my other stories if you wish! They're not all about trains ;).
Oh, and that's one more thing. I really must apologise for my swearing. I swear a lot, being Welsh, and this will make its way into the story even if I try to avoid it. Therefore, I see no point in trying.
Sorry for the long foreword, if you're still here then enjoy! This first chapter takes place mostly in the form of replies on social media. If that's not your cup of tea, the prologue can be skipped without major issues for continuity.
Prologue: Vale's Rail Ails.
Vale had a problem. A pretty big problem. A multiple-block-spanning several-hour-long problem, twice a day. A problem that was annoying Victoire so much, she took to Schneeter to rant about it, as her car sat in an interminable traffic jam for the second time that day. After all, how was she supposed to do her job ferrying important clientele for The Club if she couldn't even move more than six kilometres in an hour for four hours out of every twelve-hour dayshift?
She was done. Angry, annoyed, overheating because the AC had failed, and humiliated as her amber-eyed raven-haired beauty of a passenger drawled about her inability to do her job and avoid traffic. It wasn't like she could! So she typed angrily away on her civilian-grade several-generation-old Scroll, while said passenger scrolled lazily on her top-of-the-line huntsman-grade device.
As she finished and slammed her finger angrily down on the Send button, her passenger laughed mockingly behind her, the sound horribly grating on her frayed nerves.
"Won't someone do something about the traffic in this damn city? It's becoming so hard to get through this infernal concrete jungle that for a third of my shift I am lucky to make half a dozen fares! All I want is to do my bloody job. Is that really so hard? We need more lanes!"
She had barely been sat there for five more minutes, crawling forwards once, when her Scroll chimed and vibrated quietly in her pocket. She had a response already? She eagerly opened her device and hungrily read the response, nodding along in agreement.
Reply from BeaconofCoffee:
?VforVic It's less an issue of more lanes, you see, and more an issue of simply not enough capacity. Vale has now outgrown its road network, as is inevitable with all cities eventually. Adding more lanes would simply compound the issue, as it would compel more people to drive. Even though Vale is one of the more walkable cities, something else is needed. Rain does happen, after all. Wouldn't you agree, ?OfftoSeethewOzzard ?ValeCityCouncil ?ValeDfT
As she watched, another reply appeared. She froze. This "wOzzard" fellow had the Headmaster of Beacon as his profile photo. Could he be?
Reply from OfftoSeethewOzzard:
?VforVic ?BeaconofCoffee I entirely agree, ?BeaconofCoffee . In fact, I do believe that an alternative of some description would actually save lives. Fewer cars on the road would mean fewer collisions, and fewer people dying from said collisions. It would also allow emergency vehicles to more efficiently reach their destinations, possibly shaving minutes to hours off average response times. I wonder what such an alternative would look like. Air transport would be too expensive for the average citizen, and would end up simply separating the rich from the poor even more than they already are. (1/2)
Another reply flickered in. wOzzard had clearly hit his character limit.
Reply from OfftoSeethewOzzard:
?OfftoSeethewOzzard Road-based transport such as trams are not feasible until a sizeable amount of traffic has already been removed from the roads, as with buses, or they would simply become part of the traffic they were meant to destroy. An underground or overground railway would be a perfect remedy if it weren't for the fact that the ground beneath Vale is a swiss cheese of utility lines and caves full of rather nasty Grimm, and building above ground would involve knocking down expensive buildings. This bears further consideration. By the way, Glynda needed you in her office five minutes ago. (2/2)
Reply from BeaconofCoffee:
?VforVic ?OfftoSeethewOzzard Oh dear.
Reply from ValeDfT:
?VforVic ?OfftoSeethewOzzard ?BeaconofCoffee We're open to suggestions. We agree the situation is getting untenable.
She sighed. It seemed that she had been a little presumptuous in her rant, and had caught the attention of not only the Headmaster of Beacon, but also Vale's Department for Transport itself. This was not how she wanted to introduce herself to the most influential bodies in the city!
Reply from OfftoSeethewOzzard:
?VforVic Thank you for bringing this to my attention. You may have done Vale a service by angrily ranting on this infernal website. I can't believe it's taken this long for the DfT to do anything. If there's anything you want, let me know. Beacon will see what we can do.
She blinked, surprised. Someone honked, and she realised traffic had crawled another car length. Resolving not to grab her scroll again until the end of the shift, she settled into the driving position and pressed the accelerator.
AN: What do you think? I'm hopeful I'll get a chapter out as well as the prologue tonight, but no promises.