Rail Tube System
In the steamtech and later dieseltech eras, railways remain the cheapest and most efficient method of moving goods and people from one place to another within a cube or, under the right circumstances, throughout a tesseract. Unfortunately, in an era of increasing geopolitical instability as made manifest in the ongoing War of Reunification, exposed rail infrastructure can prove to be a liability. For this reason, most major metropolitan areas are interlinked instead with 'tube' systems - heavy rail networks built into tunnels - that connect one set of subterranean infrastructure hubs with another.
Rail tube networks can be connected to existing surface rail networks in safe cubes, such as around Silkenvault, but the growth of subterranean infrastructure projects like agri-mines and structures large enough to house whole neighborhoods means that this is less and less necessary with time. Tube systems provide protection from bombardment, leave much of the surface open for other forms of development such as farms, allow for the installation of autonet-based automation systems, and allow for the use of more efficient electric motors via electrified rails or cables. One downside to rail tube networks is their comparatively high cost when applied over inter-municipal distances, as boring and shoring up a tunnel of this length takes time, fuel, and construction materials which could all be reduced with a surface leg.
The most technologically advanced rail tube system is found in Bunker Primus, where advances in auto-net technology and large-scale structural engineering means that the tube trains can actually cross the commissure without riders needing to be forewarned about changes in gravitational pull. The most extensive rail tube system in the Manifold is in Medial A, where Voxelia has undertaken the massive cost of installing a cube-spanning rail network as part of a comprehensive national defense program. Environmental conditions in the Rostran Archipelago Confederacy and Petalcap Vale territories - namely the separation of landmasses by water and intrusive nature of the mycorrhizal catacombs, respectively - have stifled the creation of large rail tube systems in these regions, though small local networks do exist.
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