From Concept to Rails: Building Sci-Fi Transit Step by Step
The peoples of my fictional world don’t have a way to get where they’re going yet. Sure, they could just use human-style transportation. But where’s the fun in that?
I’m about to worldbuild a transit system for a rocky sci-fi planet.
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Establishing Passenger vs. Freight Logistics in Sci-Fi
I think my first step is to define the who, what, and why of my transit system. And probably the “how” of movement, too.
Let’s start with the “who.”
The planet of Barpadai has two dominant species:
Tadaribrae are fast, long-distance flyers modeled after Mexican free-tailed bats.
The leopardlike pentapardi are slower and lack endurance.
To set this up, I’ll use humans as a means of comparison. We land somewhere between tadaribrae and pentapardi locomotion.
Great endurance. Okay speed.
Because of their lackluster endurance, the pentapardi would be more inclined than humans to use motorized transport.
Tadaribrae, on the other hand, probably wouldn’t bother.
See, a 4-mile trip to the grocery store. Or all the small trips that add up to a day’s worth of travel wouldn’t be a problem for tadaribrae. They’d be able to fly to most places faster than a vehicle could take them.
That doesn’t mean they’ll never use vehicles, though.
Traversing large land masses is easier in an aircraft. And trips requiring organized movement–like, say, school trips? …Let’s get those kids on a bus, so we don’t lose any of them in flight.
With all that considered, I’ll build robust people-movement for pentapardi. And the tadaribrae will get distance transit. Plus vehicles for transporting young.
So that’s the “who”. How about the “what” and “why”?
Capitalistic and industrialized, the United Barpadai Nation will need to move manufacturing and consumer goods.
Which means the “where” is “a little bit of everywhere”. Individual homes. Businesses. Factories.
Basically, this culture needs a transit system that utilizes all the land, water, air, and atmosphere it can …without profoundly decreasing quality of life.
Since this culture’s population density and transit needs are similar to the United States, I’ll say the majority of goods transport is by truck. That ensures reliability and just-in-time delivery of goods. But I’ll also use train freight to travel through the caves. And the oceans are good for non-urgent freight.
The tadaribrae population is very large. So, a lot of the air travel will be non-vehicle fliers. But I’ll carve out lanes designed for aircraft.
And by “lanes,” I mean vertical lanes where vehicle layers will be the lowest layers of travel.
And to keep motorized transport in line, digital partitions will be placed by artificially intelligent guidance systems.
Above that, will be the non-vehicle level, which will have no regulation outside of the boundaries created by buildings and other flyers. Basically, flying on these levels will be like walking on a sidewalk.
Now that I’ve covered the who, what, and how, it’s time to look more closely at the “where”.
Mapping Sci-Fi Transit Hubs & Central Transfer Stations
This is the point at which I lean on a friend (and a bit of AI).
Cartography is not in my wheelhouse. But Aaron, who does all the junkbashing, loves maps.
So I told him all about the species of Barpadai and their geographical needs. And he made a map. Which turned into another map. And, well, it progressed from there.
But this worldbuild is about transit, so I asked Gemini about optimal transit network design. Transit hubs and central transfer stations. Chokepoints and security checkpoints.
And now, I have a functional transit map for the planet of Barpadai.
First, I’ll employ hovercraft over both land and water.
And I’ll set prime population areas within desert and grassland to house high-speed hoverways. These will be used for passenger as well as cargo vehicles.
Additionally, high-capacity ferries will provide air travel for those crossing the ocean east or west.
Thus, the waterways will remain free for heavy industrial freight.
Deep water port infrastructure will support cargo transit within the central ocean basin and major river networks.
And any freight that needs to get across the map fast can travel by air over the northern tundra and major mountain chains.
To connect all this I’ll place travel hubs and gateways at major borders as well as geographical transition points. These will ensure efficient transfer of goods and people from one transit mode or route to another.
With so many goods and people traversing the planet, governments will need to monitor for nefarious activities.
The tightest aquatic pinch point between the two major landmasses is at the central strait channel. Controls for this waterway will monitor all maritime freight traveling north-south and all hover traffic crossing east-west.
The mountain ranges on both the western landmass and southern peninsula form natural bottlenecks. So, I’ll place checkpoints here to control land-based freight moving via gondolas and through tunnels.
I’ll also create checkpoints where smaller bodies of water meet the ocean.
And populated areas will have checkpoints along their borders.
That feels like a good “ideal” situation. But what about when things go wrong?
Adding Realism: Maintenance, Failures, and Weather Limits
I’ve talked about how this transit system operates when it’s fully functional, but not everything works perfectly all the time. And, from a narrative point of view, failure points are where the drama is.
I need to think about what needs to be maintained, so I can understand what can fail.
Gravity is the most obvious enemy of a hover-vehicle network.
To keep everyone safe, the AI will need to monitor vehicle anomalies. Unexpected slowing or digital malfunction.
In these emergency situations, strategically placed automated vehicles will be deployed to assist with net capture. This system will be similar to the RemoveDEBRIS systems designed for space trash cleanup.
Gravity’s not the only problem to watch out for, though.
Since I decided to partially run my network on solar energy. accumulation of dirt and dust are a factor that can decrease output. Looks like this network is getting hourly solar-panel cleaning by robots.
Maintenance will need to extend to all the parts of the system.
Similar to maglev, this network will need maintenance on everything from guideway structure and equipment to telecommunications.
And even when things are properly maintained, they can fail. For instance, the digital partitions and guidance systems for the hovering vehicles could overload or suffer bandwidth issues.
They’ll need backup power and servers.
So that gives me conflict points based on normal operation. What about natural phenomena?
Oceanic fog, high winds, and cave humidity are all going to be challenges for this hover system. The fog isn’t as big a problem because the AI guidance systems can help drivers navigate low visibility–alerting them when they’re too close to the edge of a lane.
High winds can blow vehicles off course, though.
The best I can do to prevent accidents in that case is to create a system that warns vehicle operators of risky conditions.
But maybe, I’ll add something controversial to that.
In extreme conditions, the grid can be set to safety mode. This mode will release electrostatic charges that prevent vehicles from entering areas of high risk. In these instances, safety nets will be placed in strategic places to catch any vehicles that suffer electrical failure.
As for humidity, it’s a known factor. So, I’ll water-shield all network components.
But again, these systems can all be tampered with or maintained ineffectively. So, plenty of areas are available for transit-based conflict and drama.
Now that the system is built, it’s time to visualize it physically.
Visualizing a full transit network is a bit much. But a single tadaribrae school bus is doable. Check out Aaron’s build in two weeks. It’ll be an interesting one… ‘cause this bus can fly!
Until next time, stay curious.
