Transit in Vienda
Vienda is a vast city composed of many districts, many neighborhoods and many outlying boroughs and dependent towns. Traveling about so large an urban landscape, especially at any distance, is simply not feasible by foot alone. The very wealthy might have their own private carriages, from fast moa-drawn phaetons to the more stately four-wheelers drawn by horses and kensers. However that leaves out the vast majority of the city’s population.
To meet this obvious need a number of forms of transit have arisen from private coaches for hire, to the swift taxis, to the trams and omnibuses.
The Taxi Companies
The fastest, if more expensive, means of getting about the city is through the hiring of one of the two-wheeled, moa-drawn cabs operated by a variety of private companies and subject to an elaborate array of regulations, charters, and certifications both by the civil authorities. At present there are a number of competing taxi companies and acquiring charters and certifications is a very cut-throat business.
Because of their comparatively high cost, the taxis are mostly used by either the well-to-do who do not possess a private vehicle, or by the middle classes to get about on specific jaunts.
Costs for a cab are are often 1 tally to hire, and an additional tally-per mile driven (subject to variable fees, congestion charges, district markups, and so forth and so on).
The Omnibuses
Like the taxis, the omnibuses of Vienda are operated by private companies but for considerably lower costs, with corresponding lower speeds and flexibility.Large carriages capable of carrying dozens of passengers drawn by draft kensers or horses, the omnibuses play their way about the city on either fixed or variable routes.
Much used by the lower classes to get about the city, the omnibuses tend to be slow, crowded, and prone to not un-occasional delays, but are sturdy affairs with generally reliable service. They do operate through most of the day, and well into the evening hours, but night service can be spotty.
The cost of a journey via omnibus is usually about 1 tally, 2 for especially long routes.
The Trams
Developed from the omnibuses and often built by the same carriage companies, the trams run on tracks laid upon a number of major streets and arterials. The tramps are slightly more expensive than the omnibuses, but offer a more consistent and swifter service.
Observers from Thul Ka often compare these to a considerably inferior form of that city’s much celebrated cableways.
The cost for a usual tram journey is usually about 1 tally and 2 hats.