AURA

AURA, AUtomatic Rail Assistance, was a semi-experimental rail routing standard first theorized and implemented in June 2021 in the Augusta Region, as a response to several perceived issues and limitations with the existing Kani routing system. It was operated through the use of an external website that generated a RailSwitch command.

Features and Philosophy
AURA's design was guided by a set of core beliefs regarding the ideal way that a rail network should be built and operated:


 * Viewing rail lines shared by multiple stations as superior to direct connections, as they, simplified the layout of rail networks and their maintenance, allowed all stations along a line to automatically have solid connections to all other stations on that line, drastically reduced the number of junctions and commands needed for long distance travel, and served as a framework for further simple and intuitive expansion of the network. With early versions of AURA describing the network as a series of points and a separate series of lines that described their connection
 * Viewing auto-routers as the least convenient way to operate a rail system, preferring to see them as last-resource tools that should not be required for regional and regular travel

As a result AURA was designed to be as non-disruptive as possible to the non-router operation of rail networks, working as a simple add-on to existing rail systems, accomplishing this upgrading the existing KANI standard with several new features:


 * Directional Line Routing - The Ability to add non-disruptive routing capability to long rail lines such as the GOR
 * StopJunctions - A type of junction station which did not require disembarking tracks or a special station:exit command to end travel
 * Crossings - A simple non-junction type of connection commonly found on long rail lines
 * Router-Only dests - By convention AURA stations would be encouraged to have a router-only dest prefixed by a dot (ie .csa) alongside the common non-prefixed version, giving full freedom for station owners to use the non-prefixed version for regional travel aliases that did not conflict with AURA