City of MIDGAR

[mightygoose 92]

i love the use of the living malls

[Goin2Chicago 4]

i just looked through all your pictures and they're really nice. i like how modern the city looks and the amount of mass transit you use. it looks great! can't wait for more!

[cityhawk 12]

Wow! Great pics and city tours! Nice transportation work! I think this is the first CJ I've visited that uses every type of land mass transit (if not, then I wasn't very observant when looking at the other CJ's) Keep up the great job!

[simster6 0]

Va Bene. Looking forward to more.

[Cloud Strife 0]

Next morning...

First of all, thanks everybody for your comments! I'm glad you like my city and do really apreciate all your comments and suggestion, will try to put the most of them in my city!

Back to the CJ...

Next morning we get up in the Shin.Ra Building, we were guests of Theodore, a friend of the Mayor of Spira.
In the morning we'll go with him having a tour of one of the restricted-access areas of Shin.Ra: the TURKS AREA.
It's located down the ShinRa hill, on the left. It's reacheable from the ShinRa road, turning left (instead of right, as we did last time to reach the ShinRa building) at the crossing.


An aerial view of the TURKS militar area.

We can see lots of military buildings around here. It really seems that the Shin.Ra Corp. wants to be ever ready just in case of attacks, wars, or whatever their paranoid minds would fear!

There are also some research labs around here. Theodore says that on the other side of the ShinRa hill there's an even more secret area where not even he is allowed to access. It's believed that Shin.Ra scientists, Dr. Vu and Prof. Hojo, work at something strange and very secret in that area. However nobody can access it.




The Tolls ensure that only authorized people will access this area.
They're watched by the SOLDIERs special troops.


The entrance of the Shin.Ra Research Lab. This is where Theodore works.




An aerial view. Top left there's an industrial area, called TURKS INDUSTRIAL AREA. However it's open to all people that want to find a job. Unfortunately, no public transport service serves that area (buses are not allowed to pass the Turks Military Area).


Another close-up view of the Turks Industrial Area. As you can see better in this closeup pic, the public transport system does not serve this zone.


Another aerial view, southern, to give you a better idea of where the Turks area is located.




BACK TO SHIN.RA BUILDING... 

... this afternoon we'll go with Theodore to a special conference in the Shin.Ra Auditorium.

[Cloud Strife 0]

Invited to the Shin.Ra Conference Room...

As we said when we began this journal, it's very difficult for people to access the Shin.Ra building.

It's easy (and true) to say that most of the citizens in Midgar will never enter the Shin.Ra area in their entire life.

We also saw how the citizens do not even know the name of the Mayor!

People just know that the city is managed and controlled by Shin.Ra Corporation.

We enter the Conference Room with Theodore. Some high-qualified personnel of the Shin.Ra Corp. will officially talk to the city (through television and newspapers) about the new projects that the company wants to put in action to improve the quality of Midgar.

The new works will begin this summer.

There are a lot of cameras, TVs reporters, anchormen, and journalists that will log and report what the company say to the citizens to inform them.

However they know they mustn't report any name nor informations that the company wouldn't want to be diffused.

Just before the conference starts, a sort of presenter announces the people we will hear speaking: Mr. Reeve (head of Urban Development Department) and Mayor Domino.

We now know the name of the Mayor of Midgar!!!!

Theodore recommends to not tell it to people when back to the city.

He explains also that Mayor Domino is just a figurehead, since he holds no real powers over the city, that is managed and fully controlled by President Shin.Ra (not even Theodore knows his name).

The conference begins.

 Mr. Reeve Tuesti

 Head of Urban Development Department

 Shin.Ra Corportation 

 President of F.S. Inc. 

 First of all, thanks everybody for being here, and

 for your support and trust in our company.

 The Shin.Ra Corporation will start some works in the city of Midgar this summer, to improve the quality of the life of our citizens.

Many yards will be opened and we ask you to have patience while our workers do their best to complete the work as soon as possible.

The FIRST YARD WILL BE IN THE AREA BETWEEN JUNON AND THE COREL JUNKYARD, as shown in the satellite pic you can see on the screen.

This is where we're going to build a new suburb, nice yet well connected to the city thanks to the Monorail transiting nearby.

In the next pic you will see our project:

Here's the project: a new small suburb with nice houses, offices and shops and a few industries, for you to enjoy your life, a few miles from the centre of the city.

A new Monorail Station will be build along the elevated rail. The station will have also a public parking garage, so that people living there will be able to park their car at the station and reach the centre of the city by Monorail.

Just remember that the MR will bring you in a few minutes to very important points of interests, such as the Junon Airport, the University and the Midgar Central F.S. Station!

Unfortunately the Monorail service will be slowed down a bit while the yard will be building the new station. We hope to end this area in about one year, so please be patient!

This is a photo of the Corel Junkyard: we believe that it won't interfere with the residential area, because there will be a small forest between the houses and the junkyard. However its presence will help the housing costs to be kept as cheap as possible.

THE SECOND YARD WILL BE AT JUNON:

We do really think that the actual JUNON AIRPORT is too small for a capital city such Midgar. We need a BIGGER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.

This is a huge work to do, and we thought long whether begin this work.

The JUNON AIRPORT WILL BE COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN FOR ABOUT TWO YEARS. It will be raised down and rebuild as a bigger international airport.

ALL THE AIR TRAFFIC WILL BE DISCONTINUED AND THE ONLY CONNECTION BETWEEN MIDGAR AND THE SIMNATION WILL BE BY RAIL.

This is why F.S. Inc. will do its best in order to improve the quality of its service and the number of trains, that will have to transport all the people that used to reach Midgar by plane.

THE THIRD YARD WILL BE IN THE TOP-LEFT AREA OF MIDGAR, TO BUILD A NEW TRAMWAY:

The new tramway will begin from the actual one, connecting the centre of the city to the Wutai suburb and the Turks Industrial Area.

The TURKS INDUSTRIAL AREA is actually NOT SERVED BY THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM, so this link will improve the life of many citizens that have to go by car to their workplace in that area.

This should also help to spread out the huge traffic in the Wutai Area, due to the high number of people that live in that zone, that was actually served only by bus (they were slowed down by the traffic too).

The new tramway will have four stations in the Wutai suburb (one of them will be where there's the Godo Bus Terminal Station, allowing interchange and parking facilities).

It will then have four stops in the TURKS INDUSTRIAL AREA, ending up the line on the top of Meteora Street.

On the screen you can see our idea of the new tramway.

We will build also new trams coloured of RED just for this line.

The works will take about two years in order to be completed. However we aim to open the first piece of the line (from Jenova to Godo) in about one year.

THE LAST YARD IS IN THE CENTRE OF THE CITY, WILL ENLARGE SOME STREETS AND MAKE THEM ONE-WAY:

We will close and completely rebuild some streets in the centre of the city, west of the Midgar Central Station, that recently are getting full of traffic.

This area is pretty busy because of offices, the central station, the huge bus depot and the Big Freight Station along Corel Street that spawns trucks all around!

The following roads will be closed for about four months:

- Vincent Valentine Street: it will become a one-way road, allowing access from ShinRa Mansion road heading to Basamento Street

- Lucrecia Crescent Street: it will become a one-way road, allowing access from Jenova Street heading to ShinRa Mansion road.

- Basamento Street: it will become a two-way road to help bus and trucks to drive easily on a larger street.

We fully understand that opening all these yards simultaneously will eventually bring lots of traffic problems and uneasiness to commuters and travellers, but we really believe that as soon as the works will be over the city traffic problems will be fully solved, and we'll get even new residential areas for citizens that actually would like to come in Midgar to live but can't find an house to live in.

We're also planning to build two high commercial towers at the corners of the city to offer more workplaces to people living in the suburbs and in the neighborhood.

We thank you for the patience, and hope you will apreciate our efforts to improve your live in Midgar.

< Reeve T. >

____________________________________________________________________

Many applauses, and the conference ends. We left the auditorium and go with Theodore to have lunch.

In the afternoon, we'll go visit the FORT CONDOR area.....

[sloppet 3]

Great work on the update Cloud!

[Equilibria 16]

Great looking update. I really like the way you've integrated the tram into your pictures.

Boy, I would hate to to be living in the city when the airport is shut down. It may be slightly easier in other parts of the world where the rail system is reliable, but here in America we use air travel for basically all domestic needs. Having the airport closed for two years would kill a city. Good luck to your citizens, and good luck to you in the construction process. Can't wait to see it.

[Cloud Strife 0]

Visiting two suburbs...

In the afternoon we decide to visit the Fort Condor Area.

We heard that it could be possible to watch the ruins of an old fort in that zone.

We take the bus line 113 from the Central Station, and wait for the bus to reach the last stop, that is Fort Condor.

A view of the Fort Condor station.

We reach the last stop of the bus 113 line, along Fort Street (Via del Forte). As we look around, we can see the ruins of an old fort. It's possible to go visiting the ruins by feet and it's completely free!

Another view rotated of 180 degrees.

Near the bus terminal there's a parking garange and a very small railway station.

This area is really nice: lots of parks, small and nice houses, the ruins as background, and a bus and railway station to get connected to the center of the city.

A bit northern there's the Eleanor area (we crossed it by metro the first day we came to Midgar). This pic give you an idea of how pretty is this area.

The local stadium. All around small villas and houses. Many parkings for the residents.

Right there's the highway.

This pic is on the left of the station. You can see the Fort Condor Road (Via Fort Condor) and some more ruins.

Seeing this area, we really would like to get an house in a place like this in Midgar!

In order to get back, we want to take another path, seeing one of the areas that Shin.Ra talked about at the conference. We've never seen the center of the city on the left of the station. And we never travelled by tram yet!

So from the Fort Condor station we take the BUS LINE 116: we will get off at the last stop that is "Palmer". From there we will take the tram for the Central Station.

The Palmer station allows interchange between tram and bus. Provides also parking facilities.

As we can see, the tramway crosses the area nearby the highway, that divides the suburbs from the center of the city.

Being the borderline, we can see many industries on our left. On our right we see the buildings.

The big Corel Freight Station, a bit on the right from the tramway we were looking at, along Corel Street.

This enormous freight exchange station built in the middle-left part of the city ensures fast shipping and delivering of the freights.

In front of the otherside of the freight station, along Basament Street, there's the big bus depot of Midgar.

Another look of the Basamento Bus Depot.

Back at the Shin.Ra building, we meet Theodore again and have diner with him.

We talk to him about our visit to Fort Condor, and we say how we would like to get an house in Midgar in such a nice suburb like that.

Theodore says that the houses are a bit expensive in the Fort Condor area, because of the ruins and their historical value.

In the meantime, buying house in the centre of the city would be even more expensive!

However he says that there's a new suburb in the northern-right area of the city.

We thought to the Priscilla area, near the Junon Airport (we saw that when we arrived in Midgar), but he says that the area he's talking about is a little more left of the Airport, on the other side of the highway, just down the Shin.Ra hill and the tower with a military base.

Being a new zone and being so close to the military area, the housing cost is lower than in other places in Midgar. However he ensures that the area is really really nice, and a part for the very high walls that surrect the military base, there should be no problems at all in that zone.

It's very close to the ANCIENTS AREA, another zone of historical interest, with a gorgeous park and a cemetery. There are also the water pumps far from there.

As you can see in the pic, the ANCIENTS AREA is down the Shin.Ra military base.

That high wall is not really good-looking, but the area seems nice.

It's a very recent-built zone. Even if it's so close to the Junon Airport, there's no connection with the Airport yet. 

As for the highway, it's possible to access it heading to the city, but there's no exit from the highway to access this area!

There's only a parallel ramp that was built long ago, when there was nothing interesting here, that permits to reach the city by Highway, but does not allow cars coming from the highway to access the Ancients Road.

Shin.Ra is working in order to solve this problem, by building another ramp or a cloveleaf.

Visiting the Ancients Area with Theodore

The day after, Theodore brings us to visit this new area, searching for an house to buy or rent.

Coming from the centre of the city, we run on Cetra Road and turn right on the Road of the Ancients (Via degli Antichi).

We see the cemetery at first.

Near the cemetery there are some wonderful parks. They're both dedicated to the CETRA and expecially to Aerith. Statues of the Cetra are around there.

On the other side, there's a wonderful park with a gorgeous fountain and a statue in the middle (they say it's dedicated to Aerith).

There's also an Amphiteathre where, on summer, there are shows and games.

This area is very often visited by tourists and by the citizens of Midgar too, to relax, have pic-nics, and spend holidays!

Still driving on the Road of the Ancients, we turn left at the crossing, along Elmyra Street (Via Elmyra), on the back of the PARK OF THE ANCIENTS.

We can see some parkings there... used by people that come to the park for holidays!

They're not enough on summer, when so many people come here all day and night (for shows).

Turning right, we enter the new residential area.

A closer shot of the area, built at the bottom of the Shin.Ra Militar Area.

Forgiving of the military base, this place really looks nice! And the housing cost seems to be cheap enough for a place like this!

A look of the Bus Station, on the top of the area.

This zone is connected to the Midgar Central Station by the BUS LINE 123 (a new bus line that Shin.Ra developed to connect this area).

The bus terminal is along Ifalna Street (Via Ifalna), and offers also a public parking garage.

Theodore says that in the next month Shin.Ra will add new bus lines to reach easily the Airport (that unfortunately will be closed down for the next two years, because of works in progress) and the Fort Condor area.

Some small industries on the top of the area.

This new area looks really nice. The only defect is that base on top of that enormous wall, that is not really good looking.

Moreover would being so close to a militar base bring any sort of trouble?

Theodore says that Shin.Ra ensures that the citizens will NOT have to worry about the base, because it won't cause any trouble to them.

However, its presence makes the housing costs being approachable to many people that, until now, would have never been able to buy an house in Midgar.

Being so close to the Park of the Ancients makes this area even nicer, because it's possible to reach the park by feet or by bus!

[GaBoR 7]

wow very good CJ, love the use of ff7 theme!!! Can wait for the next update

[cityhawk 12]

Looks like expansion and improvement is well thought out. I look forward to your next pics and story!

[Zelgadis 638]

Oo, you're so evil, making us wait for so long for updates!

This is great!   Do I see the beginnings of a storyline here?  Looks like it might be interesting... 

I hope Prof. Hojo doesn't make any freaky genetic experiments that end up running amok in your city. 

ISF

[sloppet 3]

Great update Cloud S.!! Really well done! I can't wait to see what's next here!

[Cloud Strife 0]

The beginning of the works in the city...

Thanks everybody for the comments!

Unfortunately I'm pretty busy this period with my job (got a sort of "promotion" so I've to do my best and work some hours more than usual) and often I've not so much time to shot pics and write, however I visit Simtropolis many times per day, also from my workplace eheh...

A few words more for the comment left by Equilibria: I found very interesting what you told, I really can't imagine a life where air travelling is such a daily thing! I live in Italy and here most of the people is not used to fly very often. It's also much expensive here (there are few low-cost companies but their planes are very uncomfortable and many people does not trust flying with them). Is that so in your country too? 

I'm really interested in knowing the habit of people from other countries, expecially America and Japan. I like transportation systems too, and really like to get informations on that topic.. for example, what kind of transport systems are most used .

_____________________________________________________________________

Back to the CJ....

Summer time, as announced on June, 1st some of the new yards are being opened.

Let's see some of them!

A view of the first yard, on Vincent Valentine Street.

The right area of the center of Midgar is going to get some modifications.

Three streets will became roads: two of them one-way roads and the last one a two-way road.

It's not possible to work on all the roads simultaneously, because this would prevent people to reach their houses and workplaces.

So the workers will close a road at time.

They begin with Vincent Valentine Street, that will become a one-way road, linking Shinra Mansion Street to the Basament Street.

The access to the local streets is still provided by Lucrecia Crescent Street (that will become a one-way road too). However, the amount of traffic is going to increase day after day.

Time to begin the works for the new tramway extension too!

The workers placed the new rails over the road in the night so they didn't had to close the street.

Now they're going to prolong the tramway under the highway and up to the Wutai area.

In the meantime, the workers changed the name of the nearby tram stop: from "Wutai" to "Vincent Valentine". This has been done to avoid people taking the wrong tram at the central station, heading to Wutai instead of Wutai Village.

Some days ago the JUNON airport has been shutdown.

This pic has been shot before shutting down the airport. Look how many cars are parked there! All those people will have use the railway to access and leave the city for the Simnation!

Here's what we see some days after from the road. The entire airport perimeter has been fenced as the works have begun.

The construction workers are doing an hard work to complete the new airport as soon as possible.

Shin.Ra hopes it will be completed in two years. However it's a HUGE mission to accomplish, because of the big area, and the fact that so many people and planes would transit, so all the systems and structures MUST be well-built and checked many times.

Among the yard vehicles it's possible to see some parts of the airport that have not been demolished yet.

Raising the "skeleton" of the new airport.

A view of the F.S. station that will have to allow to transit the enormous amount of people that used to airfly before.

The yards are open also at night. However they do very small works by night to avoid to disturb the sleeping people in the near Priscilla small residential area.

THE MONTHS BETWEEN SPRING AND SUMMER....

...last months Shin.Ra began building the new residential area we saw two posts before, bottom of Junon, in the eastern corner of the city, top of the junkyard, along the Chocobo Road.

In fact, Chocobo is the name the new area will be referred to.

The beginning of the works...

A close-up pic

As you can see, the MONORAIL NETWORK HAS BEEN INTERRUPTED TOO!

Actually a new monorail station is going to be built in this new area.

Shin.Ra hoped to be able to build it without stopping the monorail service, but due to some techical problems (that require the rails to pass in a different place in order for the station to be built) the rails have been cutted.

So the MONORAIL SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE UNIVERSITY.

This is not a so big damage at this time for many reasons:

1) The airport is closed due to re-construction. Most of the people that used to travel with the monorail were persons that had to go to the airport, or that came from the airport to the centre of the city.

2) At this time, people from the Simnation arrive in Midgar by train. Trains stop at Junon, but they can directly reach the Midgar Central Station along the railway. So there would be no reason at all to get off the trains in Junon in order to take the Monorail to reach the center of the city!

3) The only people that could still be interested in the monorail are the residents in Priscilla (that small residential area close to the airport). It's a very small area right now, so for this period of time they will have to go to the center of the city by Bus (cheap) or by train (a little more expensive).

Keep in mind that, being the airport closed, there's no traffic at all along these roads, so the bus won't take too much time to reach the city centre.

Cranes building the new Monorail station in the Chocobo area.

The Monorail service is limited to the University. Priscilla and Junon are not currently served.

The first houses in the Chocobo area are being raised!

So many construction companies are interested in this new area, they bought all the assigned lots and just began raising the buildings!

There is space for shops and offices too!

The residential area looks nice and quiet.

After about 3 months, the new area is almost complete. Except for the monorail (the works have been slowed down a bit because of the surrounding yards).

There are also some hi-tech industries in the Chocobo area!

Here we see a school bus bringing kids back home.

There's just an elementary school around here, so that children can go to school near their house. For high school they will need to go to the city center (it will be fast with the monorail, and they'll be old enough to go by themselves).

Next updates soon!

[cityhawk 12]

Your pics of construction are very well presented. I'm enjoying your CJ very much, and I will be back after the next update for sure!

[Zelgadis 638]

Excellent as always!

As for the stuff about air travel, what Equilibria said was essentially true.  However, air travel isn't necessarily a "daily thing" as you put it, but it is important.  The US and Canada are both so vast that it is somewhat impractical to try to install a comprehensive rail network.  It really only works well in the northeastern part of the US and not really anywhere in Canada.  Too much distance between cities.

Japan, a place where I lived for 3 years, has probably the most impressive rail network I've ever seen.  You can go almost anywhere by train.  Interestingly enough, though, is that the domestic airline industry there is also thriving.  Go figure.  I'd much rather take a bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka rather than a plane, but that's just me.

ISF

[sloppet 3]

Great update Cloud S. !! This CJ is so far really well done, keep it up mate!

[Equilibria 16]

These have been a great couple of updates. I like the choice for the ATCT at the new airport, and the neighborhood nearby looks pleasant and quiet (at least until the low flying planes show up), and your parks look serene and handsome. Nice work overall.

As for the transportation bit, thanks Zel for elaborating a little. In terms of distance: from Boston to Washington D.C. is approximately 500 miles. This is about the same as the distance from Paris to Marseille (or Rome to Milan, from a quick look at an atlas). American's like going fast, and thanks to airplanes we have become accustomed to it. Boston to D.C. is about the farthest most Amercians are willing to travel by train, and since that's a relatively small distance in American terms we don't consider trains for most trips.

Consequently, Amtrak (the national rail company) is pathetic compared to its European and Japanese counterparts. The combination of impracticality, poor service, and frequent delays and equipment malfunctions mean that American's don't really consider the train very often. Within about 9 hours by car (Boston to D.C.) we'll drive, since the freeways here are well-designed and very common.

Of course, instead of the train, we fly everywhere. To correct Zel a little, there are people here who commute to work by plane daily. Many more have such frequent business trips that they might as well do so. Commercial air travel in the US is privitized (there is no US national airline), creating lower fares and many choices in flights. Since an airport is hence the city's connection to anywhere and everywhere people want to go, closing it would be a disaster. The rail lines simply wouldn't be enough to support the city, since people would rather take their business elsewhere than use them.

Sorry for the lengthy update, but then you did ask for elaboration. Nice work, keep it up.

[soldyne 111]

OMG your updates are so huge! this CJ really brings back memories of FF7. great job on everything.

[Cjah 15]

Very nice city layouts......I like the junk yard and other areas aswell as the transit layout.Your use of LE is very skillful and looks of construction is shown....

Very awesome!

[Cloud Strife 0]

Thanks everybody for so many comments!

Happy to read you like the FF7 theme of the city.. I use to give a "theme" to any city I build, because that way I'm able to easily assign names to areas, districts, and roads in a sort of "logic" way. Then I can enjoy building the transportation system (that will inherit names from nearby roads), placing signs and so on..  That's one of my favourite moments of the game.

Many many thanks to Zelgadis and Equilibria for writing more and elaborating the topic of the transportation system in your areas, so different in some aspects from where I live. 

Zelgadis, I think you're lucky you've been 3 years in Japan, I've never been there, but like it so much, and really hope to be able to have at least an holiday there in the future.  

Equilibria, it's very interesting to read what you wrote and the details about the railway company.

Thinking about some american tv series (for example X-Files, one of my favourite TV series) I recognize what you write, people that easily take plane for business, holidays, and so on. Even Mulder and Scully do buy (or maybe FBI buys for them ) plane tickets so often whenever they've to go in other parts of the nation or other cities. They fly almost in each episode.

I'd like also to know more about metropolitan transport system... such as subway, bus, taxi or whatever....

Sloppet, thanks for your comments! I like your sign. I'm going to get one soon.

Now back to the CJ....

The works in the city go on...

The works on Vincent Valentine Street have been completed! It's now a one-way road that you can access from the western area of the city (from ShinRa Mansion street), and arrives to Basament Street (on the back of the Central Station), giving access to the local buildings.

The yard has now been moved on Lucrecia Crescent Street that will be changed to one-way road in the opposite way than Valentine Street.

In the last part the road has not been completely closed. Instead it has been "reduced" in space, allowing cars to access the local buildings while the yard workers do their job on the other half part of the street.

A shot of the inner area surrounding Lucrecia Crescent Street.

The works on the new tramway... 

...the residents in Wutai are complaining about the new rails

In the meantime, the workers have prolonged the tramway as shown in the project some posts ago. They passed under the highway and reached the Wutai area.

Some itineraries have changed for car-drivers due to the closing of certain streets.

Here's where the workers have arrived....

...before the people living in the Wutai district began to protest and complain on the road, blocking the workers!

A strike/demostration on the road to stop the work of the new tramway!

Here's the situation as for today!

The residents in Wutai went on the road and blocked the workers, preventing them to go on with the building of the rails.

They absolutely don't want the new tramway crossing their area for many reasons!

1. They don't like how some roads will be demolished in order to be changed with the tramway! in the pic you can see how many traffic and car transit in Wutai: it's a nice suburb full of people.... and traffic. Closing some roads would cause more traffic until the tramway will be operative (hoping that people would take the tram instead of the car). People don't care of Shin.Ra promises for the future.

2. They don't want that their residential area becomes a "transit-point" for people from the city to the Turks industrial area above. They fear that having so much people crossing the area everyday would increase junk, crime, traffic and noise/pollution levels.

3. They don't want the road you see in the pic to be replaced by rails. The houses would have access only from Wutai Road and Godo Street, that are full of traffic yet.

4. They would prefer a SUBWAY line, that would prevent traffic, road demolition and too many new people going all around the area.

Some people parked their cars on the new rails as you see in the pic, to prevent the yard vehicles to go on. Then people began striking and protesting on the road with signs, causing huge traffic problems, because they go up and down on the crossing on Wutai road just after the cloveleaf linking it to the highway!

The workers stopped then, and called their company, that said to them to go back for today. What would Shin.Ra do now?

[jacqulina 162]

fantastic updates very nice close up pics great detail

[cityhawk 12]

If the power of imminent domain is in play here, then the people can be arrested.

Great pics and storyline! Lookin' forward to more!

[Cjah 15]

Good story....the residents are fighting back!

Interesting how they proposed a subway idea...I mean subways are good,but don't bums live in some subway lines?

Anyway great story and a good update!

[GaBoR 7]

Great update, looks very interesting what you're planning for the airport!!!

[Zelgadis 638]

Hee hee, what would ShinRa do?  Probably kill them all. 

I don't know about what Equilibria said.  I've never heard of very many people commuting to work by air very often.  But I did read an article in Newsweek about people commuting to work by car for up to 2 hours each way.  The suburban sprawl in American cities is getting ridiculous.

ISF

[Equilibria 16]

Quick point: I'm not sure what goes on in Canada, but I know a good number of people who will live here in Boston and work in NYC or DC. Maybe they don't commute daily, but probably a majority of days out of the week they hop a 45 minute shuttle south. I don't mean we'll go to California on a daily basis, but within reason, it happens.

Interesting story element, this protest. Were I living in this neighborhood, though, traffic would be the least of my worries. Light rail is really loud, and screeching and squealing does not appeal to me right in front of my house, especially in the wee hours of the morning. Shin. Ra, of course, won't stand for this foolishness, but I hope the poor people here get something for all the misery they'll have to go through.

I'll post some more transport facts next time, If you'd like. For now, great work, and keep it up.

[Cloud Strife 0]

Thanks people for all your comments! So happy you keep looking at my CJ!

Some answers before the CJ continues...

Equilibria: thanks for all the interesting informations you're writing! Yes, I'd really like you to write more about transport usages in your country! I really look forward to read more! I'd like to read something about inner-city transportations too (bus, metro, trams...? what is most used from the suburb to the city centre?)

Zelgadis: unfortunately, also here we sometimes remain for about 2 hours in the traffic trying to get our way to work. There are people here in Rome that every morning spend from 60 to 90 minutes just to commute from their house to their workplace... and the distance is not so big! Just go give you an example... if I have to be at work at 08:30 A.M. I've to leave my house at 7:30 A.M.... and my workplace is just 35 kilometers far from my house! If I go to work after 11:00 A.M. I just spend less than 40 minutes to arrive. But maybe the main problem here is the fact that our cities were not meant (nor built) to hold so much people... roads are not well-thought, and our highways are pretty unuseful at "rush hours" because the roadways they're connected to are too small and can't receive the amount of cars that access them from the highways. How is there, instead? You talked about 2 hours of commute time... it's mostly due to distance or to traffic?

Thanks jacqulina, cityhawk, cjah and gabor for leaving a comment! A few lines under the CJ continues, hope you'll like it!

A quick tour of the Wutai area..

Before looking at what Shin.Ra is planning for the Wutai area (where a protest against the new tramway took place), let's have a quick tour of this area since I've never talked about it, nor shown any pics.

The Wutai Area is a nice high-wealth suburb in the western part of the city.In the upper area there are many residential buildings. It would be a very nice place to stay.. so nice that so many people live here, and the main problem of this zone is the high traffic percentage at rush hours.

In the lower area there are some hi-tech industries and small commercial buildings.

From Wutai Street there's quick and immediate access to the highway.

This area is served by bus. There's a bus terminal with parking along Godo Street.

The area along Godo Street. (As many of you would remember, Godo was Yuffie's father in FF7)

Nice and high-wealth buildings. You can see also a bus stop along Wutai Street (crossing Yuffie Street and Godo Street).

So many cars on the street.

A pic of the southern Wutai area, with small commercial buldings and hi-tech industries.

In the meantime.. we found a house in Midgar!

Yeah, thanks to Theodore we found an house in the new Ifalna area! Being under a Shin.Ra military base allowed us to buy an house for a very cheap price, considering that the area is very nice and our house has many comforts such as air conditioning.

Our address is 14, Aeris Street.

Our house! 14, Aeris Street.

Our neighbor, Mr. Damien Flogisto

We met Damien Flogisto, our neighbor. He bought house here to be close to his workplace, that was in the Priscilla district near the airport.

He told us that even if he was close to the workplace, there was a big problem when he finished working and had to get back home. In fact, the Ifalna district is connected to the highway only by two ramps, that allow only cars coming from the neighbor city to access this area, and allow cars from Ifalna to enter the highway heading for the city.

So he could arrive at work in a few minutes, but he cannot do the same road to return because if he took the highway, he would not be able to leave it because of the missing ramps.

This is something ShinRa is working on, you'll see it later in this post.

Now Damien works at the near Hotel.

Look how many cars around here at rush hours. This area got populated very soon!

Shin.Ra reunion about the strike at Wutai

The strike/protest at Wutai against the new tramway couldn't leave Shin.Ra indifferent.

President Shinra asked for the executives and the Turks to gather in his office for 12:00.

 President Rufus

 Head and owner of Shin.Ra Corporation

 Well, time to begin talking about the citizens of Wutai.

 According to Reeve's report, it seems that they didn't

 liked our work to improve their life too.

 We did a good informational campaign, people knew our

 project. We did spent a high amount of our funds to begin the

works. But it seems that something went wrong. What ? And what do you propose to do in order to solve the matter? Please speak one by one.

 Mr. Reno K.

 Member of Turks

 Member of Shin.Ra Executive Group

 Mr. President, the citizens complained about the new

 tramway saying they don't want it to cross their area.

 They think it would bring too much people walking around, 

 and they seem to not want "strangers" near their houses.

They think that it could also increase the crime rate in the area.

Moreover they don't want to hear the noises of the trams. They proposed subway.

In my opinion, we should go on with our project and ignore their complains. Should they stop our workers once again, we'll have to arrest them and punish'em at least with a high money fine.

 Mr. Rude J.

 Member of Turks

 Member of Shin.Ra Security Group

 Oh well. As you know, I'm not a great speaker.

 I think we should immediately arrest the people who put in game

 our projects and power, otherwise they would think anyone can

 so easily stop our plans. This would cause more strikes in the city. Arrest them as an example for the others. So no other people will try to stop us again.

 Mr. Tseng C.

 Member of Turks

 Head of Shin.Ra Public Safety Department

 I don't agree with Rude. Come on, we're not in middle ages!

 We can't arrest those people, think about it.

 Wutai is an high-wealth area. Those people do really have 

 money. And they don't are rich because they're thiefs. They're

rich because they OWN shops, offices, industries and so on. What would happen if we arrest them? Or the sons of them? Have you seen how many students were on the street protesting? Would you really put young students in jail? Our future scientists?

Don't forget that Shin.Ra is mainly a COMMERCIAL company. We're who we are also because of our products. We do produce and sell food. We do produce and sell electricity. We do produce and sell water. We do provide transportations. We do many things to the entire simnation!

Being violent against our citizens would make us highly unpopular in the entire nation.

Moreover, they would continue protesting. Think of it. For instance, some industries would cease to use our products. Or some shops would stop selling our stuff. You know the meaning of boycotting?

Look at the situation with your brain, not with your muscles.

Wutai is full of rich people, right?

Their houses are nice, and expensive.

We want to put a lightrail with trams on.

This would cause noise. This would cause traffic. This would cause more people around.

This could cause their houses to LOOSE A PART OF THEIR VALUE!

Have you thought to that? You think that your house would have the same value if you build a noisy lightrail nearby?

I'm pretty sure it's a question of money.

Don't dispatch SOLDIERS nor police there.

They don't want the tramway? Ok, let's stop the works. Let's save the remaining funds.

Let's connect the Turks Industrial Area by bus. 

We'll be able to establish a connection by public transport and have the Wutai people happy at the same time.

This is my proposal.

 Ms. Elena T.

 Member of Turks

 Head of Shin.Ra Public Relations Department

 

 Indeed I agree with Tseng. Violence is the last thing we should

 use.... against our citizens.

 However... we did place some funds to this project. What if we

 re-use them in order to build a subway in that area, as the

residential asked? We spent just A PART of the money we would have spent. We built some rails. What if we make them continue in the underground?

Would that be possible, Mr. Reeve?

 Mr. Reeve T.

 Head of Shin.Ra Urban Development Department

 President of F.S. Incorporated

 Well, I agree with Mr. Tseng and Ms. Elena.

 We shouldn't use any violent approach at this time.

 It's not the case.

 However, we can't build a subway in that area with the same

funds because of many reasons. First of all, we would need to connect the new tubes to the existing subway. This would require a longer underground tunnel to reach at least the central station or the Heidegger Metro station. 

Moreover, trams are not built to go underground. There would be structural problems and security issues we can't get through.

I think the bus idea is the best way to solve this issue.

<RUDE>

Maybe you're right... even if I would really have preferred to send our SOLDIERS there.

<RENO>

Rude.. you never change! <laughs>

However.. Tseng is right. We did not consider some aspects we should have thought of before.

I agree with him too.

<PRESIDENT SHINRA>

Ok then... Elena, please, send out the news that we're going to stop the tramway project in Wutain, and inform people that we're going to put on the road a new bus line connection to the Turks area. Send the news to all the local TVs and newspapers.

Reeve, put your engineers at work to create a new bus path and a bus terminal in the Turks area.

Send the workers and install some bus stops along the path.

Keep me informed on the status of the works.

________________________________________________________________________

Shin.Ra updates to Midgar Public Transport Network

A few days after, all the stations published this update.

Shin.Ra is creating two new bus lines - 124 and 125 to connect the Turks Industrial Area to the Central Station and to the Wutai area (just because Wutai and Turks areas are very close).

The 123 bus line is new too because of the increased population of the Cetra area (where we live too!).

Bus 124 will depart from the Central Station, going along the tramway on Mount Nibel Street, turn left on Shinra Mansion Street, take the highway and access the Turks Industrial Area, ending the run on the Meteor bus station (that is currently being built).

Bus 125 depart from Wutai (the bus terminal along Godo Street), take the highway and run along the same path of bus 124.

As you can see in the map, the monorail service has been restored!!!

And a NEW MONORAIL STATION has been built in the new Chocobo area!

The new monorail station in the Chocobo area!!

The public parking garage is very useful here! People living in this area do park their car there and take the monorail to reach the center of the city!

This new station is under heavy use! It reaches 120% usage in the stats, while the parking is used at about 58% of its maximum capacity.

This means this area, new and yet nice, is going to get very populated.

The rails in Wutai have been fenced!

Here it is: the rails have been fenced by the Shin.Ra. A small park has been created in front of the fence for eyecandy purposes. They're dead rails now.

Building the new bus terminal in the Turks Industrial Area

The works for the new bus terminal have begun along Meteor Street.

The works along Lucrecia Crescent Street have been completed!

Now Lucrecia C. Street is one-way road too!

Working on Basament Street... becoming two-way road

The yard has now moved along Basament Street.

It will become a two-way larger road.

This is the only road connecting to the back of the Corel Freight Station, so it cannot be entirely closed while the working are in progress. The yard works on the half of the road first. Then they'll proceed working on the otherside.

The project of a new HIGHWAY RAMP for the Cetra area

This is the situation we were talking about at the beginning of this post!

The Cetra Area hasn't got a full connection to the highway network.

As you can see, in the top area there are only two ramps that allow people to access the highway heading to the city, but there are no ramps allowing people coming FROM the city to access the Cetra area!

Even in the bottom corner, there are no ramps!

Since there's not enough space to build two more ramps in the top corner, Shin.Ra will build two ramps in the bottom corner at the circled crossing with the highway.

That will make possible for people to access the Cetra Area back coming from the city by just taking the other highway (the one coming from left to right).

Building the new ramps...

A closeup of the workings, just back the cemetery..

To be continued...

[Bombastix 0]

Woow! Very good update! Like your city a lot... and the monorail station is beautiful! Keep it up!

[cityhawk 12]

I love the construction site pics! All of your other pics are great, too, and the storyline is the best of all of it! I really like how you put many perspectives on the argument to stop or proceed with the tramway construction. You have good thinking skills as well as SimCity skills!