Transportation

Effective transportation systems are one of the pillars upon which the modern system of trade rests. No city is entirely self-sufficient - they all depend on a steady influx of food, raw materials, and even people to survive. On the other hand, they often produce more goods of certain types than they require or consume, so their merchants and craftsmen are strongly interested in finding ways of getting these goods to people who will pay highly for them.
Thus, to keep the cities functioning, transportation cannot be allowed to be as slow and inefficient as in feudal times, when most traffic was catered to by horse-drawn carriages, primitive river barges, or even on foot. Fortunately, there is money to be made by providing transportation, and various groups organizations have risen up to the occasion in multiple ways.

Flight

Flight as a mode of transportation is fairly rare, and can be divided into two categories. Flight via flying creatures, and flight via magic.
There are quite a few creatures capable of both flying and carrying a rider at the same time. Unfortunately, these creatures are either sapient or hard to tame and train. And even if they can be trained, they will only accept the person who actually trained them as a rider (though some of them will accept other passengers as well). Thus, the availability of flight as a personal mode of transport is limited to those who spend lots of time caring for and training their mounts - not to mention deal with the difficulty of acquiring such a mount in the first place! Many elves have proven willing to do so, but among other races only few organizations (often but not always of a military nature) have been willing to spend the time and effort for such an enterprise. Most humans would rather save the time and effort and just travel where they want to go by rail and coach. It might not be as flashy, but it gets the job done - and ultimately costs less time and money.
That magic is capable of granting flight has been known for a long time, and many wizards enjoy flaunting their abilities in front of others. However, such spells require a lot of time and effort to learn - thus making them expensive - and only rarely last for long enough to get to distant locations, which means that more conventional modes of transportation have proven more efficient under most circumstances. Magic items capable of granting flight for longer periods are known, but thanks to the expense required in creating them, they are usually kept in secure locations instead of casually used for other travelers, since the owners of such items don't want their investment stolen at the next opportunity. Instead, they are only used in emergencies or when they can be sure that no stranger will get hold of them. Thus, their impact on transportation is limited as well. Some ambitious artificers dream of flying golems who will usher in an Age of Flight when traveling through the air becomes affordable to the common man, but as of now, these remain pipe dreams.

Railroads

One of the great symbols of the modern age, possibly even more so than the nexus towers, railroads are quickly spreading across the continent. The basic principle of a railroad is simple: Several large wagons filled with either passengers or goods are moved along metal rails through the pull of several golems in quadrupedal form walking next to the rails. In effect, they work similar to the traditional stagecoaches, but the rails ensure a smoother journey and the golems provide much greater pulling power than mere flesh-and-blood horses could (though horses are used for some shorter and specialized tracks where using golems would be uneconomical).
From the original Bodenwald to Grüngarten line founded in 1376 NA, the rail network has spread over much of the continent. Competition for being awarded the rights to build a line between two location is often fierce, as the profits can be immense. This competition can varying from fairly open competition for the highest bidder to outright nepotism, with the strategic interest of the city involved often playing a crucial role. Sabotage between the railway companies to drive each other out of business is not unknown - sometimes even at the cost of innocent lives. But for those raking in the profits, it is all worth it.
The railway system can be grouped into the following independent networks:
The Western Network: The largest and oldest of them all, the Western Network covers the Flannish Cities, the Siebenbund, the Parginian Rim, Thenares and the Alliance of the Pantheon (although there is no direct rail connection between the latter two thanks to historical and mutual animosity - anyone wishing to travel from one to the other via rail has to go to the Parginian Rim first). Efforts are currently being made to expand to the south along the coast of Malundi, and to the north through the Norfjell Wastes (hopefully eventually reaching Gol Grungor and the Land of the Dead). Finally, a major spur is built through the Grand Road a subterranean tunnel starting at the Parginian city of Alassio, with the intention of reaching Gol Murak, the Desert of Thunder, and finally the Eastern Network at the Verdant Coast.
The Central Network: This Network used to be part of the Western Network, but the Alliance of the Pantheon cut all links to the League of Armach when the latter started to expand in their direction - and Thenares does not seem to be in any great hurry of creating new rail links to the East, either. Since then, the Central Network has been strongly reinforced to cope with the increased traffic of military units and associated material on it. It mostly covers the League of Armach and Gol Algor (whose inhabitants have taken to the new technology enthusiastically and started to introduce several innovations based on it), with tendrils reaching into the Gawaris Desert and the Lake of Dreams region.
The Northern Network: The Hobgoblin Dominions might not have invented the railways, but its leaders know something useful when they see it. Their own rail network now covers almost all of the Dominions and is now starting to connect many of the cities of the Lands of the Dead - which makes some people nervous since this would also make an invasion easier for the hobgoblins. Plans are currently made to extend the Northern Network to the Norfjell Wastes, eventually meeting the Western Network there. However, the Northern Network uses rail tracks with a greater distance between the rails than the other networks, so that rail wagons can't move from one to the other and passengers will have to switch wagons one that day arrives.
The Eastern Network: The youngest and sparsest of the networks, the Eastern Network is almost solely limited to the Verdant Coast, with a single spur reaching up to the Gawaris Desert (with the eventual goal of reaching Ranya to the east). It is expected to become much more prominent once the Grand Road is completed

Ships

Ships are one of the cheapest ways of moving large amounts of goods long distances, and have been used since ancient times. However, they also have the significant drawback that they can only go where there is large amount of water - large rivers, inland lakes, or the open ocean. Thus, most historical trade routes centered on these whenever possible. In modern times, it has also become possible to dig vast canals between the city, thus allowing ships to travel even where no convenient river is located. This is a massive undertaking and is only done by very large and wealthy cities who can afford it. Skeptics claim that these canals will soon be rendered obsolete by the expanding rail network, but for now, building such canals has usually been worth it.
The slow, placid, horse or golem-drawn river barges can hardly be compared to the ships moving across the open oceans - these must be much sturdier constructions to be able to endure the frequent storms lashing across the surface of the seas. Most such ships are still sailing ships, but more and more these are replaced by metal constructions propelled by giant, golem-powered paddlewheels.
Whatever their type, ocean-going ships are a significant investment, and while the merchant fleets of individual city-states can be impressive, none of them have the numbers to maintain true colonies in distant lands. Instead, they prefer to create trade outposts where they can buy or sell their goods, and make sure that the local ruler is on their side through a combination of diplomacy, bribery, and the occasional show of force. Sometimes, they have even backed adventurers to take over local rulership in return for favorable trade concessions.

Teleportation

The fastest and most expensive form of transportation, teleportation is also the rarest. Few spellcasters are able to teleport with any reliability, and those who do are very well paid for their services indeed. Only those able to use greater teleport will usually teleport others for hire, for only the desperate will hire others to cast an ordinary teleport spell to get where they want, and only the foolish will tempt fate by depending on it for a living - for sooner or later the odds are that they will end up in a location quite hostile to them.
Given all this, it is not surprising that the possibility of teleportation has changed little in the way most people travel. It is reserved for emergencies, missions of great importance, or when the things the teleported people carry are so valuable to make the trip worthwhile. The best example of this are the off-planet diamond mining operations of Bodenwald - despite the fact that the miners first have to be teleported to Neubodenwald and then to Surtus, the raw diamonds are light and valuable enough to make the operation profitable nonetheless.

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