What the new transfer timetable means for travellers

The Halcyon transfer office has published its timetable for the next twelve windows to the outer Reach, and for once the small print repays a careful read. The windows themselves have not moved, because they cannot. Almost everything around them has.

What has not changed

Liners to Tessaly still leave in windows that open every 26 days, when the positions of Calder and Tessaly let a ship fall outward around Ilyr on a transfer orbit that saves fuel. That rhythm is set by the worlds, not by the timetable, and no schedule will change it. Each window stays open for about four days. The standard crossing still takes nine. Miss a window and the next one is 26 days away, which is the single most important fact in this article.

The Morning Lark keeps its own long loop of 14 days, outside the transfer timetable, and remains the choice for anyone who wants a slow voyage rather than an efficient one.

What is new

Three changes matter.

1. An express in every window. Until now the express to Tessaly ran in every other window, so half the year's travellers had no fast option at all. From the first window of the new timetable each one carries an express, leaving on the window's last day and arriving in six days rather than nine.
2. Standard departures spread out. Each window used to send both its standard liners out on the opening day. They will now leave two days apart, which eases the crush at the Halcyon gates and gives anyone who misses the first a second chance inside the same window.
3. Equinox crossings. Four windows around Tessaly's coming equinox are marked as equinox crossings, with an extra standard sailing in each.

The equinox season

At Tessaly's equinox the rings go edge-on to Ilyr, and for a while they all but vanish: their shadow on the planet shrinks to a thin dark line, and the shadows of the moons can be seen crossing the cloud tops. It is one of the rarest views in the Reach, and the giant's long year means most people will get one chance at it. The transfer office expects demand to run well ahead of seats, which is why it has added sailings rather than simply raising the price of the existing ones.

Arrive in the equinox season and the rings are the obvious draw, but they are not the only one. With the rings narrowed to a line, Veyra and Thule stand out clearly against the planet, and the view of the Rose at the north pole, with no ring shadow anywhere near it, is as clean as it ever gets.

What it does to fares

Standard fares are unchanged, from about 3,600 marks one way in an inner-ring cabin. Express fares fall slightly, from about 9,600 marks to 8,900, because there are now twice as many seats to sell. Equinox crossings carry a supplement of up to a fifth on every class of berth, and it applies to the four marked windows only.

How to plan now

1. Book three windows ahead. Sales open 78 days before departure, and the equinox crossings are expected to sell out within days.
2. Build in a spare day at Halcyon. The shuttle from Port Kestrel takes about 6 hours. Arriving the day before your liner costs a night on the Rim deck, from about 260 marks; a missed departure can cost 26 days.
3. Choose your speed by the calendar, not only the fare. The express saves three days each way, which on a short leave is the difference between a week at Veyra and four days.
4. Check the way home first. Return windows run on the same 26-day rhythm, so the length of your stay at Tessaly is set by the windows home, not by your wishes.

None of this makes the outer Reach cheap, and nothing will. But for the first time the timetable is built around the people on it, and anyone planning a crossing in the next year should read it before they book anything else.