Central line (KRT)

The Central line, or Central Railway of Kien-k'ang as originally completed in 1916, is a rapid transit railway line part of the Kien-k'ang Rapid Transit system. The line consists of 34 stations located on a trunk line, running more or less in a north-south direction, one circulating line to Twa-ts'uk-men Station, and two additional branch lines on the south side. The length of the trunk line is 25.5 km, and the total length is 33.2 km; it originates in the Hallian Mission suburb in the north, goes through Great Kien-k'ang, and terminates in the districts of Q'a-men and Gi.

The line runs in cut-and-cover tunnels and open cuts within Great Kien-k'ang (the 1857 borders of the city where level crossings are prohibited) and at ground level beyond. It is at least a double-track railway on all parts of its route, with triple- and quadruple-track sections at parts where services converge. The Central line also operates express services that generally stop at one in three or four stops.

The Central line's distinguishing colour is yellow on the KRT diagrammatic maps since 1948.

History

Planning

In 1890, the Grand Trunk Railway, running between the Kien-k'ang suburb of Tups and Prut, neared bankruptcy as its traffic was not nearly as great as its investors hoped. Much of this traffic went to the Northeastern Railway, which had a more established operation and easily served Prut with a branch line. The GTR attempted to remedy its apparently redundant railway by a further extension to Qlik but found no money to fund the extension. Its investors appealed for Government intervention, which occurred in 1891 as the Government obtained Parliamentary support to create a public railway system and bar the construction of redundant railways.

In Kien-k'ang, the Northeastern Railway had the unique advantage of a terminal, Qlin-tsung Terminus, built before level crossings were banned in the city. Subsequent terminals like the Ferry Wharfs and Tlang-qrum had to be built just beyond the city's borders to avoid level crossings within it, which meant passengers living elsewhere in the city needed cabs if they had luggage. To enhance its competitiveness, the newly-founded National Railway built the Central Junction Railway, which ran completely underground through the city and included a new terminus located at the centre of the city—Twa-ts'uk-men Station—located even more promisingly than the Northeastern's Qlin-tsung Terminus. National Railway was further bolstered by the Metropolitan Railway of Kien-k'ang, opened in 1899, an urban railway that brought passengers from the city and its nearby suburbs to the station.

Not to be outdone, the Northeastern Railway planned its own last mile service, centred on its Qlin-tsung terminal and connecting the prosperous neighbourhoods of the city, the Hallian Mission (which was closer to National Railway's Tlang-qrum terminus), and the emerging southern suburbs of Q'a-men and Gi. Seizing on the Metropolitan's tiny coaches, Northeastern would run mainline-grade coaches on its urban railway now named the Central Railway of Kien-k'ang, portraying itself as the carrier of the city's wealthier and more discriminating classes.

While the Metropolitan had run mostly through working-class neighbourhoods and offered postal and freight services, the Northeastern Railway used its enormous financial wherewithal to reach and wend through the most desirable parts of the city, which had to this time opposed the proximity of railways to their properties. To obviate concerns with exhaust smoke, the Central Railway promised exclusive running on clean-burning coke rather than coal, to the end that "there is more smoke from the chimneys of nearby houses than our engines". Its right-of-way was also more covered than that of the Metropolitan as this stopped noise more effectively.

Construction

The Central Railway was built by slave labour procured by the parent Northeastern Railway, whose director was on good terms with the Government. The Sli-kwang Conspiracy had been foiled a few years earlier, resulting in hundreds of treason convictions and sentences to penal slavery. The whole lot of the slaves, other than a few who confessed, were given to the Northeastern Railway for work on its various projects, including the Central Railway. Initially, the slaves were used for early morning and evening work, when ordinary workers would otherwise demand a higher wage or expect meals at the employer's expense. The worksite supervisors liberally whipped the Crown's slaves with the assurance the Government will refrain from prosecuting the railway for any injury or death of the slaves (who were technically Crown property) on account of their treason.

As a result, the slaves became more and more heavily worked as the Central Railway progressed. To prevent escape, the slaves worked completely naked and with chains on their legs and iron collars on their necks, which inevitably gashed them and caused constant bleeding. It is apparent the Northeastern Railway saw the slaves as tools to prevent its paid workers from demanding higher wages, and as the railway neared completion, the management stopped hiring physicians to attend to their injuries, expecting they need not survive to see the railway's completion. To quell protestations from its paid workforce, the management allowed some paid workers to compel slaves to work on their behalf. All the slaves who worked on the Central Railway perished in that work, and corpses were interred into the earthenworks of the railway. Historian Sherry Pin said that this "abomination occurred under everyone's noses without much objection, attesting to the universal hatred for what was called the Gross Conspiracy".

The Central Railway opened to the public on January 3, 1916, with a generally enthusiastic reception as recorded by The Times of Kien-k'ang and The Globe. It was nicknamed the "backyard line" by Lord Tan-mar, since part of the route ran through the backyards of larger houses in the city. The Central Railway was hailed as an example of private enterprise in healthy competition and co-existence with public enterprises (the National Railway), under a government as a competitor but did not unfairly favour itself.

Technical specifications

Gauges

All the KRT's trains, including the Central line, run on standard gauge tracks of 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1.435 m). The Central Railway's loading gauge was the same as the Northeastern Railway's gauge, which is 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) wide by 13 feet 6 inches (4.11 m) tall.

See also

• Themiclesia