The Plaza Subway

The Plaza Subway is a small rapid transit system operating in The Plaza. It consists of one line, running between Beach and Central stations.

History

Planning for the subway started in 1968. The system would have had two lines intersecting at Central station, under the central square. By 1973 the plan was cut down, and downgraded to tram status. Tunneling begun in 1977, after delays in planning and financial issues caused the plan to almost be canceled. Portals were constructed to allow trams to go onto the street, but in 1979, due to lobbying by citizens, the portals were filled in and the line was upgraded back to light metro status. In 1981 it was reported that 4 miles of track were constructed. It took longer than average because of lasting financial problems. Later that year, was contracted to build 64 metro carriages anticipating an extension of the route, but 5 of them were scrapped later on in 1990 when the plans for extension were dropped, and were used for parts.

In 1982 the system opened for full passenger service, on the 7 mile light metro line. In 2007, the line’s first infill station opened at Tower Park. In 2009, it was reported that the company that operates the subway, the PLUC (Plaza Utilities Corporation), has begun to seek funds to replace the old rolling stock from Kings Heavy Rail, but the plans were "indefinitely deferred", along with other plans to extend the route beyond Central and possibly a future second line. That was revived in 2023 when new plans were given along with the aid of Robloxity County, which may seek to buy the line from the PLUC in the near future. These new plans would include an extra line, and extending the line to the East Robloxity Robloxity Area Rapid Transit station, to allow commuters a direct transfer instead of having to take an express bus in. This is currently canceled after the conversion of the RART Two Hills Branch to rapid transit standards will add a new Robloxity Metro Line A station at The Plaza, which will make the extension obsolete.

Rolling stock

The subway operates 59 individual cars (about 16 3 car sets, 9 1 car sets) made by Loafworks. The same design is used on the Potato Transit Authority as the PLT5R model, and on CenterConnect Rail. In August 2023, the PLUC sent two sets to Kings Heavy Rail’s Old Town Lake plant, for extensive refurbishment. They returned the following December, and so far 10 out of the 16 have underwent the conversions. In the future, the PLUC has been looking to replace these, but no steps have been taken outside of the concept phase.

Stations

(Coming soon)

Expansion plans

From the start, there have been plans to extend it to East Robloxity/Two Hills station on the RART train, and deeper to the pier, but the tunnels have been filled in for the latter, and the extension to Two Hills has been canceled as of 2021 because of the new metro Line A, which will take over the old RART branch and will be upgraded to metro standards, then onto a new tunnel to The Plaza.