Twa-ts'uk-men Station

Tshio-ts'iawk-muehn Railway Station 朱雀門車站
NRC, Metro, TJRR, THSR
Concourse of the newly-completed station, c. 1919
Location	№s 1~2 South Blvd. E., Kien-k'ang, Inner Region, 10190 Themiclesia
Elevation	51 m
Owned by	NRC Kien-k'ang Metro Inner Region Regional Railway
Operated by	NRC Kien-k'ang Metro Inner Region Regional Railway
Line(s)	NRC Traverse Main Line NRC Inland Main Line Metro Blue Line Metro Red Line Metro Green Line Metro Orange Line Metro Purple Line Metro Aqua Line Metro Inner Circle Line IRRR Line 1 IRRR Line 2 IRRR Line 5 HSR Inland Main Line HSR Traverse Main Line Airport Railway
Platforms	25 island 2 side
Tracks	123
Connections	Metropolitan Omnibus & Tram taxicabs
Construction
Structure type	mixed
Depth	92 m
Platform levels	7
Parking	3232
Bicycle facilities	2329
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Station code	382
History
Opened	3 May 1893 (1893-05-03)
Rebuilt	1915
Electrified	1912
Traffic
Passengers (2015)	avg. 822,000 per diem

The Tshio-ts'iawk-muehn Station (朱雀門車站, also romanized as Tio-ts'jawk-mwen) is a passenger and freight railway station situated in Kien-k'ang, TY, Themiclesia, on the junction of the Inland Main Line and the Traverse Main Line. It is the largest station by both floor area and passenger volume in the entire city, serving over 600,000 people a day on average (est. 2015). It possesses three stories above ground level and seven below, and there are 55 tracks that can allow passengers to board and alight from the train. Additionally, there are also six tracks that allow freight to be moved onto and off freight trains.

The station was built by the National Railway Company in 1893 as the keystone of its vision to unify the (then) two most important railways, today known as the Inland and Traverse Mainlines. The TML branches soon after leaving the station, allowing trains to turn northwards or southwards along the IML. Metro access was added in many phases since 1902. The Themiclesian High Speed Rail also made it a station in 1965. The Inner Region Regional Railway (IRRR) was added in 1968. The Airport Railway is the latest service to arrive, in 1981.

The station is a cultural landmark, transportation hub, and commercial centre for the capital city Kien-k'ang. Much of this prosperity actually sprung up around the station to service its passenger traffic.

History

Railways first appeared in Themiclesia in the 1830s, but the earliest lines only served the coastal areas, shipping freight and coal. They reached the capital city in 1859, which remained the terminus for the inland-going line that would be renamed the TML in 1892. Meanwhile, a new line connecting the interior cities Kwang-tsh'iu and Lok-iang entered construction in 1878, completed in 1885. While both lines passed through the capital city, they used separate stations, located on opposite sides of the city, which slowed freight from one line to the other; this was not an issue as the two lines were privately owned until 1891. The formation of the National Railway Company that year, and its subsequent purchase of most inter-regional railway lines in the country, permitted the concactenation of several routes to form a railway network. The station (and the railway around it) was added to realize that integration. Construction work began in 1890 and ended in 1893.

Augmentations to the station began almost immediately after its inauguration. The first line of the Kien-k'ang Metro, now known as the Blue Line, entered construction in 1903 and was completed in 1908. In this vicinity, it ran under the road before the station and was largely parallel to the railway. At completion, the station did not give access to the Metro: passengers had to exit the station, cross the street, and enter the Metro station from the other side. This is largely because the 1893 station was north of the current station, and it was not deemed possible to excavate the ground under it and connect it to the underground Metro service.

The station building was demolished in 1915 to make way for a more spacious one, to match the expanding passenger traffic and provide convenient transit to the Metro, which now included the Red Line, connecting the city's prosperous southern suburbs to the station. Rather than expanding the station northwards, which would eat into the road immediately before it, or shifting the tracks southwards, the NRC elected to build over the existing platforms, which were several meters beneath ground level already. The new structure included a solid mezzanine level above the platforms and a grand concourse above the mezzanine. Re-inforced steel beams were imported to span almost the entire width of the concourse. This technique prevented the concourse from overloading its foundations, which was heavily re-inforced beforehand. While the resulting superstructure enjoyed much sunlight, credit to its glass roof and many windows, it also prevented the lower levels from receiving it. As early as 1920, the lack of natural light has inspired horror novels set in the station.

If in 1915 Kien-k'ang was a predominantly pedestrian city, then in 1930 it possessed the most vehicles of any city in Themiclesia. That the railway crossed the entire southern limit of the city created a great disruption for any vehicular traffic travelling latitudinally. Moreover, decades of successive expansions to railway infrastructure along that corridor made it unfeasible to open level crossings more than a mile in either direction of the railway, centred on the station. Pedestrians, however, could cross to the south side via a breezeway built into the station. In 1932, the city government ordered the construction of two vehicular overpasses to cross the station's 300-meter depth. Engineers responded to this challenge by placing pillars in a slightly oblique direction, so the supports would not infringe the tracks' loading gauge. Seeing overwhelmingly positive reception, six more overpasses were erected in like manner, connecting roads that were severed by the railway decades ago.

In 1940, the city decided to "fill" the space above the track layer with overpasses, so that traffic could pass unimpeded in all directions. While the war was ongoing, the city persuaded the central government to allocate resources for this project, claiming it would "immensely hasten communications between the central and local governments". The NRC simply extended the mezzanine level across the frontage of the station, as its two flanks were "covered" by the government. Due to constraints in iron use, engineers resorted to using brick vaults to support the new ground above the tracks, with each span corresponding to one track. By 1942, the "covering" was complete, and cars freely travelled over the railway. Lighting in the track layer considerably worsened, as the covering blocked off whatever little light it received from the south side. The NRC had omitted to include space for electricals and pipework, resulting in their haphazard suspension on walls and vaults. Columbian traveller A. S. Sandman called it, "one of the gloomiest and eeriest places in the world".

During the 50s, Kien-k'ang Metro again expanded its network, utilizing new tunnel-boring machines (TBM), permitting deeper tunnels with less disturbance to traffic and structures on the surface. By 1952, another two lines entered construction, today known as the Orange and Green Lines; they ran perpendicularly to the existing tracks. Thus they would necessarily need to be situated on a deeper pane to avoid conflicts with current infrastructure. The depth of the new tunnels meant the tracks above were not adversely affected; however, giving them access to the interior of the station posed a new challenge. After many surveys and feasibility studies, the NRC settled on an unconventional solution: the space immediately above the Orange and Green Lines would be turned into a new sub-level providing easy transfers between the two lines, which are only 200 meters apart under the station. The level was connect to the mezzanine layer via a set of escelators that bore through the track layer without landing, taking advantage of an opening over which no tracks ran. Amidst much public suspicion, the sub-level was completed in 1955, billed the "Civil Engineering Feat of the Decade".

In the 1960s, new challenges of a similar character confronted the NRC. In total, four new services made the Tshio-ts'iawk-muehn Station its home between 1963 and 1970. The NRC repeated its response in the 50s. This created a "sub-sub-mezzanine" accessed from the sub-mezzanine level. This would also make it possible to add peripheral entrances to street level, without passing through the interior of the station, which became more congested by the day due to new store springing . At the same time, the station experimented with underground shopping malls as a measure to lure shoppers away from the areas most frequently accessed by travellers and commuters. In 1962, 63, 65, 67, and 69, subsequent underground malls with exits leading directly to street level were added. After 1969, the basic structure of the Tshio-ts'iawk-muehn Station has not changed at scale.

Structure

Above ground

The main station building houses a 800-meter long, 20-meter wide concourse spanned by a glass roof suspended 15 meters above floor level, roughly in the east-west direction. The main entrance is situated on the north side, roughly at its centre. Behind the concourse and to the left and right of the main entrance are buildings that flank the concourse, divided into three stories; the two higher stories house the NRC's headquarters, while the first, which opens into the concourse, is occupied by restaurants, bookstalls, and other retailers. At the centre of the concourse, there are stairwells and ramps that provide access to the mezzanine below.

Mezzanine

The mezzanine level's ceiling is above current ground level, and its floor below. The open area of the level is not as long as the concourse, but it extends further south. Beyond its two sides on the east and west, there is parking space. The northern half of the mazzanine houses the ticketing windows of all services that share the station. The southern half of the level houses bus stops and taxicab queues.

Ground level

Though called the "ground level", it is under the Mezzanine, which is already partly underground when viewed from the north. There are six island platforms and one side platform, for a total of 13 tracks, accessed by escelators from the mezzanine level. South of these platforms, there are 32 tracks that compose of the switching yard, where trains are assembled, disassembled, and inspected; further south, two island platforms and one side platform allow freight loading and unloading. Cargo lifts provide access to these platforms, in addition to personnel lifts.

• Platform 1: not frequently in use; formerly used for limited expresses via the Trans-Hemithean Railway
• Platform 2
  • North side: ordinary trains westbound (north) via TML & CML
  • South side: ordinary trains westbound (south) via TML & CML
• Platform 3
  • North side: express & limited express trains westbound (north) via TML & CML
  • South side: express & limited express trains westbound (south) via TML & CML
• Platform 4
  • North side: ordinary trains eastbound (north) via TML & IML
  • South side: express & limited express trains eastbound (north) via TML & IML
• Platform 5
  • North side: express & limited express trains eastbound (north) via TML & IML
  • South side: ordinary trains eastbound (north) via TML & IML
• Platform 6
  • North side: trains bound for reversal
  • South side: trains bound for reversal, connection to subway
• Platform 7
  • North side: employee, postal, military, and charter trains
  • South side: employee, postal, military, and charter trains

To the north of the NRC tracks and directly beneath the road above, Underground Mall №1 is situated on this level. This mall is most noted for its selection of restaurants providing casual dining. Opposite the freight station, Underground Mall №2 is found, parallel to №1. As the south side of the station has been rejuvenated from a largely industrial area into one of leisure and fashion, №2 hosts a variety of fashion apparel stores.

B1

Kien-k'ang Metro's Blue and Red Lines are found on this level.

B2

Kien-k'ang Metro's Orange Line, Green Line, and the Operational Control Centre are fond on this level.

Lower Mezzanine

This level offers access to the THSR, Lines 1 and 5 of the TJRR, and the Airport Metro.

B3

This level is shared by the Themiclesian High Speed Rail, Lines 1 and 5 of the Tan-jiang Regional Railway, and the Airport Metro. Technically, Line 5 of the TJRR is around ten meters deeper than the three others, but they are accessed from the same lower mezzanine level.

Closed areas

• The TTM Station has long been criticized for its confusing layout and repressive atmosphere. Much of this is attributable to the desity of pillars and low ceilings, which is a product of digging successively deeper levels under existing structures.
• The Station has long been suspected to harbour criminals hiding in secret rooms or abandoned passageways not regularly patrolled. The most popular urban legends relay that the Triads regularly hold meetings in the old infirmary dating to before the construction of the current station building in 1915. This has been shown to be false, as the place that the old infirmary occupied is now part of the Underground Mall. While a number of similar locales do exist, staying at length in one of these places could be hazardous to human health, since there is no ventilation to keep noxious gasses from accumulating in these areas. There are also no operational toilets in their vicinity (having been sealed off to prevent leakage).
  • One such area is the ramp leading from the façade of the Station to the Metro Blue Line; that ramp was closed in the 1960s and superceded by escelators and stairs going through the Underground Mall.
  • Another area is the small landing of escelators that went through the ground level and then u-turned to lead further down to B1. This area was closed off after two tracks were redirected, allowing a new escelator to connect to its destination uninterrupted. While significant quantites of opium and smoking pipes were found there in 2001, the Station Master has told the public that there is no evidence the opium was ever intended for anything but medical use and was "probably left there by a forgetful doctor in the 1950s".
  • Amateur explorers' scans of the Station's geography reveals a structure far more complex than official plans reveal, to which the Station has stated that, for safety reasons, not all places in the Station can be made available or even konwn to the public; this statement, made in 1970, has been cited as evidence for extra-terrestrial activities by some individuals.

2003 attacks

The TTM Station was the site of an violent incident between the Grjek-N-lu′ Cult and the Kien-k'ang Metropolitan Police, possibly the largest-scale terrorist attack in Septentrion up to that point. The cult attempted to barricade themselves in the building, haveing disseminated sarin gas in several other stations on the Kien-k'ang Metro. The cultists, who number over a thousand, arrived with firearms and other weapons close to 9:00 AM on December 30th, 2003, and began to open fire on the public, while closing off all entrances of the station. There are approximately 132 civilian casalties, and the police were notified promptly but not enough to prevent the cultists from exploding the main doorways, barring police entry. It is believed that the cult thought the Third World War was approaching, and the only place safe from its nuclear arsenals was the TTM Station. This is probably an extension of the popular saying that the Station was so deep that not even radiation could penetrate it. As a result, the Traverse Main Line was sealed off, and the Kien-k'ang Metro was suspended, as the Operational Control Centre was seized.

After the cultists secured the station, the police began to probe other access points, which included all the railway tunnels that led to the station in all directions; however, the cultists had anticipated this tactic and proceeded to drive locomotives into the tunnels to ward off police approaching from them. The police cut power, but there was an extensive source of backup electricity available in the station, as required by law. Since the station had more than 200 access points, a number of them were either unknown to the cultists or left unguarded. The police strove for entry in these points, but in every case they were expelled by cultist fire. Security forces additionally faced the challenge of distinguishing, in the complete darkness, between civilians trapped in the station and cultists, since the latter wore no distinctive clothing. The situation tended towards a stalemate by the middle of January 2014. The Themiclesian government appealed for assistance from foreign states, and many governments were forthcoming to send specialist teams.

The option of destroying the station was quickly dismissed due to the presence of large numbers of civilians trapped in the station, who were effectively hostages. The cultists did not attempt to establish communication with the outside world. In February, over 4,000 policemen were assembled in the capital city for a major offensive from all known points of entry. The idea behind this strategy is that the rebels had access to a working network of CCTV, which revealed the direction of the police's advance, allowing it to concentrate defences in that area; attacking in every direction at once would, theoretically, stretch the cult's manpower so thin that breaching it should be easy. Yet when the attack began, the police faced severe resistance in every front, sometimes receiving casualties from shots fired from rooms leading off a corridor. Many of these rooms did not appear on the building's floorplan, and additional hallways, alcoves, and hidden pipework entirely wide enough to allow humans to pass were discovered frequently.

Nevertheless, the police managed to make steady advances, if only room-by-room. By the beginning of March, they managed to compress the cult-held areas to a limited number of platforms and hallways, as well as the NRC level. Making headway, the remaining cultists were coralled into the NRC level, which was particularly poorly lit; even with floodlights brought in, pillars were staggered in such a way that blocked off all light in any direction. The police barricaded themselves with the platforms that laid before the switching yard. A fierce shoot-out ensued between the cultists and policemen for the next five days, claiming the lives of over 100 cultists and 89 policemen. Just as the shoot-out seemed to be over, the cultists broke for the secret stairwell that led to the level below, allowing some of them to attack the police's rear on the NRC level. Another 1,000 policemen from nearly regions were summoned to reinforce the police currently trapped inside; the new arrivals approached through emergency tunnels that connected the tracks between levels, which surprised the cultists. Eventually, in what could be described as a six-way shoot-out, the cultists surrendered. Yet their leader and dozens of his favourites escaped through the sewerage, to the exasperation of the nation's government.

The TTM Station was restored to normal operation at the beginning of April. Yet when asked what has the Station done to prevent a similar event in the future, its director replied that it was an "unfortunate event that could not be anticipated, and there is no reason to believe that it would ever happen again." The government stationed a few more policemen in the station in the aftermath of the incident.