Nether Transit Union
Note: This page refers to the organization responsible for founding and developing railway infrastructures in the Nether. For information related to Overworld-based railway, please refer to the United Railroads of OSM.
The Nether Transit Union (NTU) is a group of players responsible for founding and/or developing Old School Minecraft's Nether railway system (Nether Transit), which purpose is to connect towns of medium to long distances to each other via railway. The group was founded on October 7th, 2021.
It is currently the first and only group operating public railway in the Nether.
History
2021
On October 7th, 2021, a group of four players (Bestsoft100, Adam, XanBlacklight and YavuzBaba123) started construction on a rail tunnel from New Player Town to Old Spawntown (formerly world spawn) in a bid to attract more players to New Player Town. This rail line was then named Route 1 after construction had been concluded. The name Nether Transit was also first used at this time, as both the group's name and the name of the rail system itself.
On October 19th, 2021, the system started its expansion for the first time beyond the initial two stations, with Route 2 from Old Spawntown to Urstantinople planned for construction. The rail line was finished two days later.
2022
After the server anniversary, world spawn was changed to Paradise City (0, 0). Nether Transit then decided to connect the then New Spawn to the rest of Nether Transit. Construction of Route 3 from New Player Town to Paradise City started on January 20th, 2022 and was finished on May 13th, 2022 after many delays.
During this time, construction on Route 4 from Old Spawntown and Gyurtown was also started on January 21st, 2022 and finished on January 29th, 2022 in collaboration with the player gyurto.
On September 17th, 2022, Nether Transit founder XanBlacklight suggested a railway project to the server's Overworld border from Paradise City (equivalent to about 125000 blocks of railway in the Nether) as a joke. It was, however, taken seriously by some other members and curious players at the time. The project was officially started in the same day under the name Project: Route Alpha. This project is currently still ongoing and is 29% completed.
2023
On January 27th, 2023, construction on Route 5 from Route Alpha Station 3 to the newest spawn at the time (later referred to as Spawntown NEO) was begun. This route was finished on June 2nd, 2023.
Aside from Route 5, most of the progress made during 2023 were focused on Route Alpha.
2024
On January 17th 2024, construction on Route 6 from Spawntown 2024 (current spawn as of March 5th, 2024) to Old Spawntown began and was finished on January 21st, 2024. As of March 5th, 2024, this is the latest addition to the Nether Transit system.
On the same day that Route 6 was completed, a decision was made to update the naming system for Nether Transit's rail lines. The following rail lines' names were changed:
- Route 1 to RE 1
- Route 2 to RE 2
- Route 3 to RE 3
- Route 4 to RE 4
- Route 5 to IC 1
- Route 6 to RE 5
On April 16th, 2024, the General Expansion Plan was initiated, aiming to connect more active towns together via railway. The decision came with a few major changes, including the rebranding of the organization from Nether Transit to Nether Transit Union and the creation of NTU's official logo.
The General Expansion Plan is still ongoing as of the writing of this page.
Nether Transit system (NT)
Nether Transit is the railway system created, operated, and developed by NTU. It is a semi-open project, as in, individuals or groups not belonging to NTU may build their own rail lines and connect their own stations with the official NT system, so long as the building styles and block palettes are kept somewhat coherent with the rest of the system. Approved rail lines may be recognized as part of the official system.
Currently, there are 35 rail lines belonging to Nether Transit, with 29 being part of the special Route Alpha line.
Naming system
Currently, all rail lines within Nether Transit (except rail segments belonging to Route Alpha) are named and classified accoring to their lengths:
| Prefix | Line length |
|---|---|
| RE (Regional Express) | Below 1500 blocks |
| IC (Intercontinental) | 1500 - 5000 blocks |
| WE (World Express) | 5000+ blocks |
List of operational rail lines
| Line name | From | To | Line name | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RE 1 | New Player Town | Old Spawntown (Spawn 2021) | RE 4 | Old Spawntown (Spawn 2021) | Gyurtown |
| RE 2 | Old Spawntown (Spawn 2021) | Urstantinople | RE 5 | Spawntown 2024 | Old Spawntown (Spawn 2021) |
| RE 3 | New Player Town | Paradise City (Spawn 2022) | IC 1 | Spawntown NEO (Spawn 2023) | α-3 Station |
(rail lines belonging to the Alpha grand line are not included here)
Active projects
As of May 5th, 2024, the list of active projects are as follows:
- Project: Route Alpha: A project aimed to build the longest segmented straight rail line in beta survival. The project's target goal is to have the final station be at the Overworld order (or 125000 blocks of Nether railway). The entire rail lines will be divided into 100 segments. So far, 29 segments (about 36250 blocks of railway) have been completed.
- General Expansion Project: A project which goal is to expand the current Nether Transit system equally across all coordinate quadrants in order to improve the system's connectivity to existing active towns and future towns. This project is still in its initial phase, collecting coordinates from towns open to connecting to the system in order to optimally plan the expansion.
Both projects are open to contributions from the community.