Transportation in Zacapican
Transportation in Zacapican is made up of a complex web of rail lines, highways, air lines and littoral transit routes navigating the country's urban landscapes, its waterways and the terrain of the interior. Zacapican is a highly mountainous country with approximately 70% of the country's land area covered by mountain ranges including some of the tallest peaks in the world, as well as hills, canyons and other significant geological formations posing a unique challenge to the prospect of overland travel. In part because of this geographical reality, Zacapican has developed throughout its history a highly maritime pattern of development due to the relative ease in traveling by ship compared to overland travel through the mountains. As a result, 17 of the 26 most significant cities in Zacapican today are port cities with major maritime connections to one another and to the wider world, while only 9 are found further inland. There are only two major regions of Zacapican with a significant expanse of flat terrain. The first of these is the Zacaco valley in the Republic of the same name, a highly fertile valley with significant rainfall and a major system of rivers that has made the basin the most populated zone of the entire country. The second is the far larger but far more arid Meco valley, which makes up parts of the Xochicuahuico, Ayomazaco and Xallipan Republics. Due to its aridity, the Meco basin supports a far lesser density of population than its western cousin the Zacaco, with its urban centers being widely dispersed across the flatlands of the valley floor. These two regions account for all nine of the major cities of the interior, with the more mountainous regions of the country being generally less developed and sparsely populated. All of these factors combined have contributed to the form and function of the nation's transportation network.
Administratively, transportation systems in Zacapican are governed by two different Secretariats of the central government. The first is the Secretariat of Public Works, which is responsible for mobilizing manpower and engineering teams to construct new infrastructure projects and undertake any major maintenance or repair operations that may likewise require such a mobilization of resources. Asa result, the expansion of transit networks is largely reliant on such agencies of the Public Works Secretariat as the Roads, Bridges and Dams Administration, largely responsible for building critical parts of the nation's road and rail networks. However, it falls to the Secretariat of Transportation to control and maintain the transport infrastructure once it is in place through its system of subordinate agencies dedicated to the railway and highway networks, maritime travel and safety, and civilian aviation. Due to the unusual demands of labor in service to long distance transportation systems, many of the transport services of Zacapican are staffed directly by state employees outside of the normal functions of the calpolli system of labor, while the local transportation services within a city or urban zone are generally staffed by transport worker calpolli contracted by the local governments.
Waterways
The network of littoral connections between domestic destinations in Zacapican is extensive and highly developed due to the inconvenience and high cost of building major overland connections through the difficult terrain of the country's interior. It was always been cheaper and easier for the logistical network transporting goods and passengers across Zacapican to rely on ships as much as possible, driving investment in larger fleets of civilian vessels and port facilities which in turn has given even greater economic advantages to sea travel. Zacapican controls more than 60,000 islands, ranging from large and well populated insular landmasses such as Mixincayoco to a myriad of sparsely populated or totally uninhabited islands and islets. The coasts of Zacapican can be notorious difficult and dangerous to navigate due to heavy seas, powerful polar storms which hit the country on a seasonal basis, and the many thousands of rocks, sand banks and shoals posing navigational hazards to vessels traveling in the coastal waters. Charting and tracking these natural hazards of the maritime environment is the responsibility of the United Republics Oceanographic Survey, while the safe operation and proper maintenance of ships as well as the training of the crew is regulated by the Office of Maritime Safety.
The organization of marine transit services is the same as that of the fishing industry, revolving around the mariner calpolli. Within the calpollist social and economic organization of Zacapican, the vessels crewed by mariners are considered to be the central workplace of a seafarer's calpolli and are controlled collectively by the member-workers of the calpolli in a similar fashion to the collective governance of factories and other workplaces on land. Housing and shore facilities are built and governed according to the same principles as the conventional calpolli. Marine workers are unique within the calpolli system because their calpolli fully own their vessels, in contrast to the use licenses for land and facilities which are issued by the state to conventional land-based calpolli.
Ferries
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Long distance ferries are unusually common in Zacapican due to the high level of investment in marine transit infrastructure. It is commonplace for Zacapine travelers to take the ferry to another city or town on the coast even when a highway or rail connection exists between the two, particularly when the destination is relatively nearby and the voyage is shorter than one day in duration. Passenger service along the ferry lines whose routes entail multiple days at sea, such as the east-west coast connections linking the major population centers of Aztaco and the Zacaco, is much less common. Unlike metropolitan ferries such as those serving in the Angatahuaca bay urban zone, most long distance ferries are typically larger roll-on/roll-off vessels designed to load vehicles and cargo on lower decks while passengers are accommodated in the upper decks. Such dual purpose vessels serve to simplify the logistical network by integrating some freight services into the major passenger lines. Oceanic cruise lines are the only means of marine transportation to the Tochixtetl and Tapachtli islands in the eastern ocean due to their distance from the mainland, with most transportation to and from those locations now taking place mainly by air.
Freight shipping
A majority of the goods transported in Zacapican are moved by sea aboard cargo ships traveling between the major industrial ports due to the lack of major rail connections through the interior. Ro-ro cargo vessels are by far the most common for domestic freight, typically loading cargo trailers lashed to the lower decks which can be loaded and offloaded via truck, with standard containers stacked on the main deck requiring a shore-based crane for loading and unloading. Ro-ro train ferries are also in widespread service with the commercial shipping fleet of Zacapican, transporting the cargo containers and rolling stock together in their holds as well as other types of freight carriages that could not otherwise be loaded onto a vessel. These also provide a critical link between the mainland rail network and the limited railways of the major islands such as Mixincayoco, Huitzcitlalti, Tletlaco and the Chichipan archipelago. The logistical support for island communities and minor coastal settlements lacking access to established commercial ports depends on lo-lo cargo ships with their own loading cranes mounted onto the vessel, allowing vital goods to be loaded and offloaded with only minimal shore facilities. The superheavy container carriers of the type common in high seas shipping are almost unheard of in domestic freight transportation in Zacapican and are mainly used in the international maritime trade network into which only a few Zacapine ports are integrated. Besides commercial cargo and conventional goods, raw materials vital to the economy are also mainly transported by sea in bulk carriers and tanker ships with only a small portion of such resources moving by rail, typically from the mining communities of the Zacapine hinterland to the nearest port to connect with the wider industrial supply chain.
Railways
Highways
Air travel
The difficult terrain of the Zacapine hinterland has lead to the widespread adoption of air travel for similar reasons influencing the marine industry. However, due to the higher cost and weight limitations of aircraft, these air routes are focused almost entirely on passenger service. There are some 2000 airfields in operation across the mainland as well as the thousands of inhabited Zacapine islands, of which 317 have paved runways. The seven largest airports, each corresponding to one of the largest cities in the country, account for the overwhelming majority of all air traffic. Nevertheless, small provincial airfields remain in use and are often a vital transportation linkage for otherwise relatively isolated communities, transporting passengers, mail, and in some cases light cargo and needed supplies. The highest passenger volumes are found along mid to long distance routes connecting the population centers of the east and west coasts where the equivalent marine travel route would take several days of travel to round the Aztaco and Anamictlan peninsulas of the southeast of the country with their many islands and coastal channels. The aviation industry and by extension air travel are well supported by government initiatives designed to encourage the growth of the domestic aviation industry, subsidizing the design and manufacture of aircraft within domestic plants. In some cases, civilianized designs of the NTT military design program were widely disseminated to aircraft manufacturers. Otherwise, major aviation manufacturers such as Aztatl and Citlamatapalli acquire designs from civilian engineering firms for manufacture and supply the 50 different Zacapine air carriers with aircraft to operate passenger airlines. These manufacturers produce a wide variety of aircraft to meet the demands of these airlines. The majority of the air travel in Zacapican is carrier by conventional jet-powered airliners, while small provincial airfields especially those without haved runways are served by small turboprop passenger aircraft such as Az-15 and Az-20 models which are more economical for shorter flights and conversely a handful of intercontinental routes of Zacapine airlines utilize the supersonic Az-70 aircraft to travel thousands of kilometers in mere hours.
Urban transport
The metropolitan transportation systems across Zacapican are unusually uniform, largely being established under the Xolotecate in the 1920s with a high degree of standardization to increase the efficiency of the construction of infrastructure and vehicles for those projects. National infrastructure planning ordained a high degree of integration, particularly in rail transit with at least one central hub train station per city serving both as the regional rail link and central hub for the city's network of subways, street-cars and autobuses. Municipal-regional integration has reached new levels in recent years due to the computerization of scheduling, enabling coordination of transit to increase the ease of connections at stations, reduce wait times and in so doing reduce travel time for passengers significantly.
Rapid transit
The backbone of most Zacapine cities is the rapid transit rail system. Depending on the geography of the city, a combination of underground tunnels and raised rails over the street level are used to carry high capacity passenger trains through the city. In some cities, such as Tequitinitlan, the metro network was planned before any part of the city had actually been built, and this practice caught on when it came to planned urban expansions with transit tunnels being far cheaper and easier to install using a cut-and-cover system with no buildings or structures yet installed over the area of the planned tunnels. Older tunnels were excavaeted by hand in many cases where this was not possible, with some newer tunnels being excavated with the help of a tunnel boring machine. Zacapine urban centers, even those were were already well established for centuries, are heavily planned around their transit systems with the rapid transit rail network being the principal mode of transit due to its good passenger capacity and efficiency in taking on the bulk of a city's demand for transportation from place to place. The layout and operation of rapid transit is therefore pivotal to the daily operation of a given city.
Streetcars
Streetcars are relatively common means of public transportation on the surface streets of a city, making use of overhead power lines and rails embedded into the street itself. In many cases, streetcars run in dedicated lanes to facilitate use and maintenance of their rail systems without interfering with cars, vans and trucks on the road. Streetcars are the oldest mode of urban transportation in Zacapican, with some horse-drawn examples found in the great cities of Aztapamatlan prior to the Zacapine Revolution. The Xolotecate era brought widespread electrification as well as expansions to the rail network, with transit engineers of the time considering such vehicles to be favorable compared to motor-buses due to the lower friction co-efficient and therefore greater efficiency of streetcars traveling on rails.
Autobus transit
The bus networks of Zacapine cities are extensive, with a particular focus on fleets of electric buses running on continuous overhead power. These were adopted in large numbers in the late 20th century many cities transitioning from older streetcar networks to this type of bus making use of the same overhead lines with the benefit of no longer requiring rails in the street. This was done to eliminate the problems with separate, elevated rails as well as those with recessed rails which accumulate refuse from the street. It also enabled the network to be expanded at lower cost as such vehicles could use existing roadways without modification and only needed power lines to be installed. These type of electric bus is greatly favored in Zacapican due to the significantly lower cost of production compared to battery electric buses that require expensive and rare materials for their battery apparatus, and suffer from reduced operating range before they must stop to charge while their overhead powered cousins are able to operate for much longer periods and traverse larger distances connected to power before any maintenance is needed. Some models of the typical Zacapine buses are equipped with auxiliary batteries to operate off the overhead lines for shorter periods, primarily to avoid stranding passengers in the case of a disruption to the overhead power supply.
Bus networks, mainly using these electrified systems, are ubiquitous in all Zacapine cities but are especially prevalent both in smaller urban centers. In such towns, there is lower density of population and therefore less intensive demand for personal transportation within the city, making the relatively high cost per mile of rapid transit difficult to justify. It is in these conditions where bus networks are preferred, as they are less efficient in transporting large numbers of passengers at a time but also significantly cheaper to install and maintain, enabling smaller communities to provide a public transit service to residents more economically.