The Golden Empire's Ministry of Transportation was responsible for overseeing the safe and efficient transit of beings and goods in the Empire's territory, both inter- and intrasystem. Despite being created years after the initial Grand Council of the Golden Empire was assembled, the Ministry quickly became a crucial player in the Empire due to its absorption of several smaller, previously independent agencies into state control. The Ministry was headed by the eponymous Minister of Transportation.
Role and responsibilities[]
Transit security[]
To ensure the safety of intersystem transit, the Ministry was authorized by Queen Rin Sakaros to seize the previously independent Dolomir Space Bureau. The Bureau was reorganized into the Astrogation and Starship Commission, responsible for setting performance and maintenance standards for spacecraft and licensing ships and their pilots, and maintaining up-to-date hyperspace data to ensure that navicomputers were supplied with accurate and safe coordinates. The agency had a main office on every world, along with field offices for every licensed starport. The agency's officers had law enforcement authority, including arrest of persons and impounding of vehicles, for violations of their departments' codes.
The Ministry of Transportation also received data from the Exploration Corps after it had been declassified, and took an active role in encouraging colonization in livable but uninhabited systems.
On-world public transit[]
The Ministry also worked with local governments to implement efficient public transit systems on every member world of the Empire. In particular, it excelled at plotting out long-distance hovertrains and hovercraft capable of quickly navigating the oceans of watery worlds. The Ministry took an active role in creating such systems on worlds which had previously lacked them; on the other hand, on very well-developed worlds, it also acquired technology to improve existing transit systems elsewhere.
Tourism[]
In addition to its regulatory and infrastructure roles, the Ministry of Transportation also encouraged (and in some cases provided ships for) tourism throughout the Empire. In this context, it worked closely with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Integration, which could provide details about a world's sentients and culture.