Black Mesa Transit System

"Good morning and welcome to the Black Mesa transit system. This automated train is provided for the security and convenience of the Black Mesa Research Facility personnel."

- Black Mesa public announcement system

The Black Mesa Transit System is the extensive monorail network linking the many different sectors of the Black Mesa Research Facility. The transit system is the primary form of transportation throughout the facility. The transit system uses the monorail system, a transportation system based on a single beam. The term is also used variously to describe the beam of the system or the vehicles traveling on such a beam or track.

Overview
The monorail system in the facility is extensive and complex, resembling a maze at times. Entire rail tunnels lay abandoned in sections of the facility that have been decommissioned. There are three kinds of monorail cars in the game: A passenger variety, with seats, windows and an electric door, a freight variety with a control console at the front and a flatbed for carrying cargo, and a bulky, heavy variety presumably used for pulling large volumes of cargo behind it. These vehicles feature prominently in Half-Life and its expansions, with the protagonists using them before and after the Black Mesa Incident to get around the facility. Gordon Freeman, for example, rides into work on one shortly before the incident, and later uses a freight car to circumvent a maze of tunnels in a decommissioned part of the facility in order to escape the HECU.

Trivia

 * Trains functioning similarly to the freight monorails can be spawned in the Source engine. However, they can only be brush-based, which limits creativity, and they are silent. A similar thing occurs when mapmakers try to make fully-functioning vehicles for Counter-Strike Source.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life
 * Half-Life: Opposing Force
 * Half-Life: Blue Shift
 * Half-Life: Decay
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar