Express Boat Network

With the release of Singularity, let’s explore the logistics of the Express Boat network. I set up a Charted Space campaign in My Traveller Universe and imported sectors from Traveller Map.

Census

The latest data from the IISS (Imperium console) reveals the route has a total distance of 5,624 parsecs across 29 sectors. Median jump length is 3 parsecs and most systems on the network link to 2 other systems. One system, Veraq, has 7 links.

Building The Network

Total capital investment in the Express Boat Network is TCr7.23.

Bases

Singularity mentions that every system on the route has either a way station or an x-boat station. That means there are 1,510 x-boat stations on the network in addition to the 315 way stations. I could not find an example of an x-boat station in any of my Traveller books, so I designed the CENS-class Station.

Capital Cost

Total capital cost for stations on the Express Boat network is TCr4.77.

Starships

The number of x-boats in the network is harder to compute. Singularity mentions:

• Small-population worlds have only one to two x-boats whereas high population worlds would have a dozen or more,
• Mail is sent the same day it is received in systems with a population code of 6 or higher. Mail sent in lower population systems might be transmitted up to 3 days after it was posted.
• Multiple x-boats may be dispatched to the same system with the same data if that data is highly important or classified.

This approach can cause significant delays when applied across the network. Take the following section of the network.

There are 6 systems between the capital worlds of Rhylanor and Pretoria. All of those systems have a population under 6. That could result in information being delayed an additional 18 days. Even getting data to Anamis could be delayed by up to 9 days.

The delay gets worse over longer routes. Data moving from Regina to Core requires 73 jumps. Along the route there are 39 systems with a population code less than 6, which will add between 39 and 117 extra days to the trip. Worst case scenario, the delay in low population systems increases travel time by 23%; even in the best case, they increase it by 7.6%.

My Traveller Universe

Anything truly vital to the Imperium’s security, like (I am just making this up) an invasion from another polity, would be carried on a special network of jump-6 ships. All other data moves on the Express Network.

The seven-day jump time means recipients are always running on information that is at least a week old. With that lag, receiving hourly updates is not required, so a jump per day is sufficient.

X-boats carry today’s information plus all information not flagged as received in the destination system. Given x-boats have a virtually unlimited amount of data storage, additional x-boats are not required to handle the load.

With a jump a day, each system requires 7 x-boats per jump link. For example, Jae Tellona has 21 x-boats, Aramis has 14. Note that x-boats in system would be the same as the number of links, as the other x-boats are in jump.

Spares x-boats are needed to handle breakdowns and annual maintenance. A spare x-boat per link seems reasonable.

Using these numbers, there are 28,672 x-boats on the network, with 8,192 spares.

Singularity mentions there is an x-boat tender per four x-boats. Since the number of x-boats in a system is equal to the number of links, it is really an x-boat tender per four links. Each system would have a spare x-boat tender; x-boats can’t be stranded because the tender is non-functional. Therefore, 3,761 x-boat tenders are required to support the network.

The Scout Service contracts a local fuel service to provide fuel to their station. There are eleven systems on the network with a class E starport. In those systems, the Scout Service will need to supply its own fuel. Those systems will need a tanker, and a spare tanker just in case. 22 fuel tankers in total. I could not find a fuel tanker in any of my Traveller books, so I designed my own, the ISGR-class Fuel Hauler.

Capital Cost

Based on:

• one departure per day per link
• x-boats having effectively unlimited data capacity
• one spare x-boat per link
• one spare x-boat tender per system
• contracting fuel delivery where possible

The total capital outlay for the ships on the Express Boat Network is TCr2.45.

Supporting the Network

The largest ongoing costs for the network are personnel, maintenance, and fuel.

The Scout Service would need to account for staff turnover and sick days. As new employees come on board, they will need training before they can start work. Let’s use 10% staff allowance to cover both cases.

Along with maintenance costs, there is also the cost of replacing lost x-boats. Singularity mentions that the network runs with four 9s efficiency, which translates to 1 loss per 1,000,000 jumps. There are 1,495,040 jumps/year in the network. That works out to 1.495 lost ships per year; we’ll round that up to 2.

Across the network, the total one-way distance is 5,624 parsecs. An x-boat burns 10t of fuel per parsec per jump, which is 56,240t of fuel. There is a jump in both directions, so that is 112,480t per day per link. Using 30 days in a month, the total amount of fuel burned is 3,374,400t. The stations can refine fuel, so the IISS is purchasing unrefined fuel at Cr100/t. Given the volume of fuel they purchase, they can likely work out a discount, but we’ll go with Cr100 for this calculation. Total fuel expense per month is Cr337,440,000.

Operating Cost

Ship/Station	#	Maintenance	Crew
CENS-class Station	1,510	92,867	135,000
Way Station	315	817,345	1,095,500
x-boat	28,672+8,192	2,842	5,000
x-boat tender	3,761	23,351	34,000
Fuel Hauler	22	7,110	12,000

• Monthly maintenance: MCr590.44
• Monthly crew costs: MCr861.39
• Monthly fuel costs: MCr337.44
• Monthly staffing allowance: MCr86.14

Total annual operating cost is MCr22,504.92, plus MCr75.79 to replace two x-boats, for a grand total of MCr22,580.71.