The San Diego Airport
San Diego Airport is one of the most poorly designed in the entire world. Approaches are over densely populated regions of the city at absurdly low altitudes. At one point, the landing gear of the aircraft are less than 100 feet above the roof tops and one commercial building is less than 50 feet below the flight path. Various plans to move the facility have been routinely canned because of funding and basic inertia. The only real renovation took place in 2038, when the old Marine Corps training area adjacent to the airport was turned into additional runways and terminals by the local government (with significant, read irresistable, pressure from both the Aztlan council and the corps). The flight pattern was significantly rearranged, but more for efficiency than safety or aesthetics. Security at the airport is extremely heavy. The major corps maintain private vehicles for air transport to and from the airport and there are two private air taxi companies. The San Diego trolly directly services the airport and provides service to both the bus and train stations.
Typically, most of the larger buildings in San Diego sport heliports. Two private air taxi services, FTZ Express and SD Carrier, provide private service for those not on a corporate retainer. A typical fare is around 100¥.
Automobile or Bus
There are four major surface routes into the FTZ. From the CFS, one can take either Interstate 5 or Interstate 15 south. There are major checkpoints on both these highways at San Onofre and Rainbow respectively. Going south is easy. Aztlan wants you to spend your money in the FTZ. Going north is another matter and involves a customs check for all vehicles. Depending on the day, this check can be trivial or exhaustive. The CFS border patrol is openly prejudiced against those of Latino or Metahuman persuasion and will almost always require them to submit to a vehicle check. From the Pueblo Council to the east, you can take Interstate 8 west. This way is also easy in, hard out and involves a tangle with high tech Pueblo Council systems. Pueblo’s relations with Aztlan are generally poor and thus their willingness to allow ingress from the anarchistic FTZ is somewhat low. Finally, one can take the Baja International Freeway north from Aztlan. There is a checkpoint at the old border when entering the Baja California Frontier and it is extremely tight. If you do not have a BC or Aztlan registration, you will get searched and laws in Aztlan are nothing like those in the FTZ.
Road quality and safety are dependant on the neighborhood, with the following generalizations. Roads in the inner city are well maintained and safe for travel day and night. This includes Point Loma, Ocean Beach, Fleetridge, Loma Portal, Old Town, Hill Crest, Mission Hills, Middle Town, San Diego city proper, and Coronado. Outside of this area, which is heavily patrolled by both corporate and private security, you must be sensitive to the area. See the sections on various neighborhoods for information.
The San Diego Transit System is a poor excuse for a business and always has been. The schedules are always changing and frustratingly inaccurate. Routes and times are unpredictable, especially in the less affluent section of the city. Still, you can get there from here if you really need to, just be prepared to spend some time doing it.
Rail Transit
There is a bullet train connection between LA and the FTZ. The train/trolley station is next to the airport where the old General Dynamics installation used to be. There is also train service to Pueblo and Aztlan. All of these systems require a custom check when leaving the FTZ, done at the station prior to departure.
San Diego, like LA, removed its trolley system with the advent of the automobile. In the late 1980’s, the city installed a new system in an effort to cope with a massive gridlock problem. Since then, the trolley has expanded to cover most of the city.
Lines radiate out from the Train/Trolley station in Old Town (where the old General Dynamics building was). The red line goes north through Bay Park, Pacific Beach and up to Del Mar with a side line to La Jolla. The yellow line follows I-8 through Fashion and Mission Valleys and then straight up the middle of I-15 as far as Rancho Bernardo. The green line, which used to go all the way to El Cajon, now stops at college because they can’t keep the tracks open. The blue line runs south through the City and along I-5 into Aztlan. The orange line crosses over to Coronado and the grey line services Point Loma.
Each train has an armed security guard and a quick response alarm which summarily gases the entire train. The trolleys cannot be hijacked in any normal way because there are no manual controls (they are all equipped with computer pilots). Crimes commited on the trains are all video-recorded and the doors will only open at a station if the guard is alive to authorize it. Free Transit, the company that owns and operates the trolleys under license from Aztlan, maintains a top notch quick response team with orders to shoot first and fingerprint later. Because of this, crimes on the trolleys are rare. The stations and their environs are an entirely different matter and depend on the neighborhood. The trolley does not even stop at many of the stations south of San Diego on the blue line.
Typical fare for the trolley is 5¥, depending on the number of transfers.
Boat
Gray Swan, Pacific Royalty, and Danmark Lines all operate cruise ships in the Gulf of Baja and all offer a stop in the FTZ as a shopping paradise. Be careful of customs when disembarking from these cruises. Aztlan in particular does not appreciate people importing contraband from the FTZ, though they are firmly behind the right of anyone who wants to sell it there.
Shipping into the port of San Diego is massive because of the total lack of regulations regarding what can and can’t come in. In fact, there are no inspections of vessels coming into the FTZ and the harbor is supposedly the busiest on the entire sea board.
