Storysystems Evolution
For this evolution of the story, instead of taking something that was already existing in the story and branching out from there I decided to introduce a new technology and see where the story takes itself from there. In the case of this story, I wondered what would happen if regional rail were suddenly to become an idea of high-speed rail, and would implications would that have for the existing story. So that's what I did and also introduced some twists to the story such as what would happen if it could not be built out as fast? That resulted in moving the story forward in time to the years 2042 to make the timeframe feel realistic. It also resulted in the regional spine to Leavenworth still being used instead of high-speed rail since that was only available down what is today the I5 corridor that runs north and south. Also incorporating high-speed rail allowed for some of the destinations to be further away such as traveling all the way to Portland instead of sticking around in the Washington area. This further made the story seem less realistic but also allowed for further highlights or perhaps what a future might look like with this.
Fast Tracks & Future Tales
In the cool, misty morning of Seattle, a young woman named Sarah wakes, wanting to grab brunch with one of her friends in Leavenworth on the other side of the cascades. She also wants to spend the afternoon in Portland to meetup with some grad school classmates to go over a proposal that they're putting together for the city. The year is 2042, and Cascadia has finished the main spine of its high speed rail network connecting Vancouver to Portland. They also have started connecting it to the existing regional rail network that was completed in 2032.
Sarah has to start her day off early because she needs to take a bit of time to get ready and make that she has everything she needs for the day ahead. The train ride to Leavenworth takes about an hour and the train from Leavenworth to Portland takes about two hours in total so plenty of time for her to get some things done on the train that she needs to do. So she better start packing to make sure that she has everything ready to go she thinks.
She first starts off by brewing her coffee in the morning because that is just one thing that she can't get by without. She then places it a thermos so that she can enjoy it on the train ride on her way over to Leavenworth! Then quickly grabs her e-ink table and augmented reality glasses and places those in her bag so that she review things using them. Frantically though, she begins searching for her laptop, she can't find it anywhere. In frustration, she looks all over the place and still cannot find so she takes a quick break, brews some more coffee, then finally finds the laptop on top of a table by her door. The laptop is then hurled into the bag and shes hopes on her bike after rushing frantically out the door. She pedals as hard as she can on her bike so that she's able to make it to the train station in order to catch the next train bound for Leavenworth so that she can make it in time for brunch with her friend.
Sarah makes it just in time to Union Station for her 8am train to Leavenworth. Hurrying onto the train she drops her bike and then settles into the passenger car, taking out her tablet and begins reading some of the literature that had she had to review for the upcoming class. Time flies by quickly on the train as she's taking notes and what not. She remembers that if she had wanted to meet her friend John, in Leavenworth, before it would have taken her about three hours by car to get there. Soon the train got to Everett, and then she got off and switched to a slightly slower train. Unfortunately the geography of the cascades prevented a faster train being built all the way to Leavenworth so she still need to transfer to the regional train bound for there. Soon the train arrived at Leavenworth just when she had finished up most of her readings.
She grabs her bike off the train and then heads for a small cafe where she meets up with her friend John. John is actually enrolled in the same class as Sarah in graduate school, so to start off they quickly go over some of the assignments that they had been working on. They quickly exchange stories two reading them allowed to each other to see if there was some improvements that they other could suggest that they needed to make. Soon they sandwiches that they order arrived so they quickly started eating those. After brunch, John and Sarah decided to take a walk around town and explore the fake German village that was meant as a tourist trap to draw in people from around the Washington area. They had a lot of fun, found a few interesting shops, but by one it was time for Sarah to head out so that she could get to Portland in time. She hopped on her bike and headed to the train station so she could catch her train bound for Portland.
As soon as she got to Portland a few hours later she quickly meet up with her friends. There were working on a small project for the city of Portland where they're helping to redesign the waterfront park along the river near downtown. Sarah reached into her bag and pulled out the augmented reality glasses to see what everyone was thinking about in terms of possible designs that might work out for the park. Soon they came to an agreement after trying out a few possible combinations and working at it for two hours. The augmented reality glasses really made it easy for them to change things and visually see what something could possible look like in the real environment. Sarah then went back and hopped on the train bound for Seattle which took about an hour and a half to get her home. Reflecting back on her train ride home she realized that before this new transit network, this entire day would not have been possible at all because she would have been stuck driving, which took over twice the time to get anywhere that these high speed rail lines did.