God of Technology: Creating the Internet in Another World-Chapter 468: The Rail System Plan

"I’ve already confirmed the basic plan. Since you’re interested, take a look."

Viscount Roster didn’t hesitate. He pushed out a document. "Unless something unexpected happens, the ultra-high-speed rail transit system will be built based on this document."

Everyone’s expressions turned serious as they hurriedly opened the document.

1. The Rail Transit Company will be responsible for all ultra-high-speed rail transit systems across the entire continent...

Everyone agreed with this point. They had no reason not to.

They quickly moved on to the next part.

2. The Rail Transit General Company will uniformly dispatch and command transportation on the ultra-high-speed rail transit system, implementing centralized unified management of all routes, ensuring railway operational order and safety, and ensuring transportation tasks are completed...

"Does this mean that in the future, no matter where a railway is built, it needs to be managed by the Rail Transit General Company?"

Someone looked up at Viscount Roster curiously and asked, "If some nobles build this kind of track in their own territories, you probably can’t control it even if you want to, right?"

"If they don’t want to connect to the main lines, I naturally won’t interfere." Viscount Roster was very casual. "Just keep reading."

The technology for the ultra-high-speed rail transit system was mainly concentrated in the trains. The tracks themselves weren’t that high-tech—just stations that could gather magic power and tracks that could continuously supply magic power to the trains.

Before long, others would be able to learn how to build the tracks themselves. Viscount Roster was selling the trains at clearly marked prices, just like magic-powered vehicles.

He actually didn’t mind if some major lords built small-scale rail transit in their own territories. Wasn’t this also a way to promote magic-tech industrialization?

However, there probably weren’t many people with the financial resources to build it privately.

Looking across the whole continent, there probably wouldn’t be many.

And this would be way down the line anyway. In the early stages, they’d definitely prioritize meeting the Rail Transit Company’s needs. They’d make the right choice.

Hearing Viscount Roster’s words, after a moment of silence, they looked at the next clause.

3. The Rail Transit General Company will build seven horizontal and nine vertical routes, a total of 16 transit track systems. These 16 transit track systems will become the core arteries of the entire continent’s transportation system...

A very detailed plan for 16 railways included all the continent’s most important cities and economic centers in a massive network.

There was even a detailed diagram below.

The total distance reached a terrifying 38,000 kilometers, making everyone present gasp.

38,000 kilometers was no small number.

"Whoa—this scale is kind of terrifying, isn’t it?"

"Over 30,000 kilometers, almost 40,000. Even if you had a legendary magician walk these routes, it would take forever, right?"

"Such a vast distance, all needing railway tracks—how much steel would that require? How many magical materials? How much labor?"

Hearing their words, Viscount Roster said in a very calm tone, "These projects don’t all have to be implemented right away. We can do it step by step, expanding slowly."

"This is just an overall plan. Just keep reading the rest."

Viscount Roster’s words were like throwing cold water on them, but the excited hearts of those present couldn’t calm down for a long time.

No matter how you looked at it, having such a massive project laid out in front of them was incredibly shocking.

Even the watch wall probably wasn’t on this scale, right?

With genuine feelings, they looked down at the rest.

4. The Railway General Company is willing to authorize various empires, kingdoms, duchies, marquisates, and counties to build ultra-high-speed rail transit systems and provide technical support, but the overall plan must be approved by the General Company.

And they must comply with the General Company’s dispatch...

The detailed application process was laid out. Basically, if these nobles wanted to build railways in their territories and connect them to the main lines, they needed to join the General Company and follow its directions.

The entire construction process would need to be inspected by the General Company.

The benefits were obvious. As long as they were willing to build and willing to join this company, their railways could connect to the main lines. In theory, in the early stages, they could reach all the important places, and later on, as more people joined, they could reach anywhere.

Just think, if there was a railway right at your doorstep, that would definitely be a huge plus.

But how many people could actually afford to build it?

The major nobles present had clear heads. They quickly understood the significance—basically, they could be allowed to use the station as a pretext to pool their country’s resources to build railways and connect them.

As long as they didn’t interfere with those main lines, they could build wherever they wanted.

The major nobles were obviously relieved. From this perspective, the benefits seemed pretty balanced.

At least they’d have decision-making power over many stations.

5. Passenger fares and freight rates will be uniformly set by the General Company, charged based on distance and weight. All revenue from the main lines belongs to the General Company. For auxiliary lines, 15% of revenue goes to the company as a service fee, with the remaining fees going to the railway builders.

Seeing this, everyone nodded repeatedly.

This point was very reasonable.

Although 15% of the revenue from the branch railways they built would go to the General Company, the General Company was indeed providing them with tons of support—the initial technology and later management.

Without such a unified management organization operating on such a rail transit system, problems were bound to happen! 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

If nothing else, they deserved credit for the effort.

What’s more, there really were both achievements and hard work.

This definitely made sense.

6. Main line stations will be purchased outright by the General Company. Merchants can enter through bidding and auctions. Ticket sales will be handled by the General Company. Branch companies can refer to the General Company’s system and make their own decisions, but ticketing must be coordinated by the General Company.

Stations were hugely significant and a collection of interests. A single station would bring enormous revenue. There was no need to think about it—everyone understood this.

You could even say that every station could spawn a small city.

Viscount Roster was very clear that he couldn’t make everyone hand over station management to him, so he planned to directly manage the main line stations, while only managing ticketing issues elsewhere.

This essentially distributed the benefits of all branch line stations, handing them over to the nobles who built the railways.

He believed that once the first main line was completed and those nobles saw the huge benefits a station could bring, they’d join in.

Ultimately pushing forward the construction of the entire railway network.

As for the clauses that followed, they became more detailed matters, but everyone read them extremely carefully.

They could feel that Viscount Roster was taking this plan very seriously.