Rail transportation (Final Fantasy VIII)

Using Rail Transportation is the main method to travel across the world of Final Fantasy VIII, until the party obtain either the mobile 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 on the Horizon Bridge, going through Fisherman's Horizon, although this is now disused. Regardless of distance between stops, the charge for using the rail service is 3,000 gil.

Transport Usage
Rail travel is used five 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 Vinzer 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 on disc 2, when the SeeD members travel back to Balamb to help avoid the missiles 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.

Forest Owls Base


The Forest Owls' base is a yellow train engine with a skull and crossbones print near the front. Inside the train possesses a similar layout to most conventional engines with the back-most cabin being converted into a room for Rinoa Heartilly. The cabin on the lowest level is used as a meeting/planning room, possessing a table and board for that purpose. The other cabins remain the same as they had been designed (control cabin and boarding cabins).

Intercontinental Train Transports
Possessing a blue and grey color scheme these trains are the primary type seen racing around the globe as civilian transports pulling groups of passenger carriages along behind. Powered by a turbine mechanism, their cars' coloring differs depending on the travel region. Usually the train is comprised of four cars.

SeeD Cabin
In some trains SeeD have special cabins designated for the private use of their operatives. The cabin includes a large couch and two bunks as well as providing entertainment for long journeys such as magazines.

Rollcars and Monorails
These trains and monorails are predominantly seen traveling through Timber. Composed of three cars each, the roll cars were given a flush and crisp design, while the monorails have more curved appearances. Local residents coming and going from the TV station make use of the roll car lines.

Doomtrain


Doomtrain is a train-type Guardian Force. Similar to a ghost train, the Doomtrain appears and disappears into thin air and has become such a phenonema that several issues of Occult Fan Magazine makes mention of it and its appearances.

Stations
Train Stations are dotted throughout the country of Galbadia with some located within towns/cities while others are solitary, located in various areas of wilderness. While most are in varying degrees of operation there are one or two that have fallen in disrepair due to lack of use, the most extreme examples of this being in Fisherman's Horizon and the station near the Great Salt Lake, which have both been abandoned, as the rail network connecting the Galbadian and Esthar Continents was completed in the very brief time after the war and before Esthar's self-imposed "silence".

Far East Galbadia Station
A solitary train station in Galbadia for embarking and disembarking Galbadia Garden students. The station has a direct link to Deling City and is a constant site of students waiting for trains or simply "hanging out" after a hard day of school.

City/Town-based Stations

 * Balamb Town
 * Deling City
 * Timber
 * Fisherman's Horizon