Excess Express

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Investigating the inside.

The Excess Express is a luxurious train Mario and his comrades ride to get to Riverside Station and Poshley Heights in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It, as well as the smaller areas Poshley Heights and Riverside Station, serves as the setting of Chapter 6 of that game.

During the three-day train ride, unfortunate events happen, hindering Mario and his pals and keeping them from getting the sixth Crystal Star. Heff T. steals Chef Shimi's Galley Pot and Doopliss (impersonating Zip Toad) steals a Ratooey's briefcase containing ingredients for Nitro Honey Syrup, the waitress's shell earrings, and Toodles's Gold Ring. Under orders of the Shadow Sirens, he planned to mix the things he stole together to bomb the train, resulting in what he described as a "sticky, yummy explosion". Mario and his friends enlisted the help of Pennington to foil his treacherous plans.

Mario and his pals also met Ghost T. here. Mario had to talk to him after the Excess Express conductor accidentally left him a blanket (not realizing that he was a ghost), leaving the conductor without a blanket of his own. Mario had to retrieve Ghost T.'s diary for the ghost to give the blanket back. There is also an engineer that runs the train.

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Mario, in Poshley Heights, jumping outside the Excess Express.

Mario and company also run into a hoard of miniature Smorgs that kidnap all the passengers on board, with the exception of the engineer, the conductor and the waitress, the latter two of which they hold captive in the storage cart. As Chapter 6 ends, Mario travels to the Smorg-infested rooftops of the train and fights a giant collection of Smorgs, eventually freeing the passenger and saving the Excess Express. Afterward, the rooftops (and the storage cart, for that matter) are inaccessible.

Passengers Of the Excess Express

Below is a list of the occupants of the eight cabins of the Excess Express. With the exception of Mario, Ghost T., and Heff T., all occupants are replaced by various traveling Toads and Koopas (as well as a single Yoshi, the only one in the game other than Mario's Yoshi partner and his Stampede friends) after Chapter 6.

• Cabin 001: Doopliss (disguised as Zip Toad)
  
• Cabin 002: Toodles
  
• Cabin 003: Heff T.
  
• Cabin 004: Ghost T.
  
• Cabin 005: Mario
  
• Cabin 006: Pennington
  
• Cabin 007: Ratooey Businessman
  
• Cabin 008: Goldbob, Sylvia, and Bub

Enemies

• Smorg (Chapter 6 Boss)

Trivia

• The Excess Express may have been inspired by Dry Dry Railroad from the original Paper Mario, which was similarly a train boarded in the game's main area. The two trains also looked vaguely similar (mostly in palette and in the fact that they both featured star-like objects in their fronts) and featured near-identical staff members, although Dry Dry Railroad was much smaller than the Excess Express and not even a playable area.