Rail transportation (Final Fantasy VIII)

=Rail Transportation (Final Fantasy VIII)=

The main method to travel across the world of Garden or Ragnarok. This particularly applies for moving between Balamb and the Galbadian Continent. The towns of Timber, Dollet and Deling City are all accessible by rail, and the D-District Prison and Galbadia Garden are within a short walk from stations. There is also a connection between Timber and Esthar, going through Fisherman's Horizon, although this is now disused. Regardless of distance between stops, the charge for using the rail servoce is 3000 gil, which is considerably cheaper than hiring a car, which is the only other viable option during Discs 1 and 2.

Use In The Plot
Rail travel is used 5 times during the actual story. After graduation, the first SeeD mission is based in Timber, and the train is required to get there. During the course of the journey, Squall, Zell and Selphie all have a strange experience, where they dream about Laguna, but they recover shortly before arrival. Their mission in Timber is train-based, which involves hijacking the carriage of President Deling, by uncoupling the train cars around the target. After this, the party leave Timber by rail, heading towards the East Academy Station, which is near Galbadia Garden. After the events in the Garden, the party travel to Deling City by train. The last use of the train is in Disc 2, when the SeeD members travel back to Balamb to help avoid the missles which have been fired at the structure. However, the player can continue to use the train system at any point within the game until Disc 4, if they wish to.