How to optimize your passenger transport network

This tutorial shows you how to transport passengers.

Table of contents:
- Rate this page
- Introduction
- Basics (What you should know)
- Build a transport network
- How to build a bus transport network? (in a city)
- Transport passengers between cities
- How can I find find areas which are not served by my passenger transport network?
- Maintain your transport network

Maintain your transport network

As time goes by cities and passenger numbers are growing, you therefore have to buy additional busses and trains for your transport routes to be able to cope.

In the following diagram you can see how an example city has grown between 1933 and 1989.

Image: city grow

Other strategies

Author: unknown
Method: Start a game with passenger transports

It seems to be a good idea to build a backbone with one big fast train. You can buy at least one with the starting money. I usually use 10 carriage S220s for that purpose. (A diesel engine with ordinary carriages is even cheaper and has higher capacity.) Then connect as much cities as possible to the backbone, using busses or DMUs. Bus stops have a coverage of roughly 7x7 squares, you don't need to place them too densely, this will only slow down your busses if they have to stop too often. Make sure to serve the town hall of each city, every special building in the city and if possible nearby industry. Try using ships if possible, maintenance for tracks and stations is expensive. You'll see it is easy to get lots of passengers.

Hendrik Siegeln wrote:
Das A & O beim Passagier- & Posttransport ist, dass man die gesamte Karte, bzw. alle potentiellen Passagier-/Postziele mit Haltestellen abdeckt.
Dabei bekommt jede meiner Haltestellen ein Postamt zur Seite gestellt, und Postautos fahren auf denselben Linien wie die Busse. So ist es möglich bis zu 95% aller möglichen Passagiere/Post zu transportieren, und +7 für Staädt stellt kein Problem dar

Ich behelfe mich allerdings manchmal eines Tricks, bei dem ich eine Strasse oder Schiene rund um eine Stadt lege, um sie an der räumlichen Ausbreitung zu hindern. So wachsen die Gebäude in den Himmel, und ich muss nicht ständig checken, ob die Neubaugebiete immer noch durch meine Haltestellen erreicht werden. Das ist natürlich kostenintensiv, aber spätestens nach 10 Jahren sollte sich niemand mehr ernsthafte Sorgen um sein Geld machen ....

Compare of busses, trains and ships

The following table compares the advantages of the transport means for city transports.

Busses

Trains (Tram-like)

Ships

Pro

Cheap for a few passengers

Cheap for many passengers
A medium train can transport about 1200 passengers

Cheap for very many passengers

Contra

Many busses are expensive
A bus can only transport 160 passangers

Expensive
You have to replace streets with rails (many work)

Very expensive

Costs

Medium sized city
6 Bus stops
Capacy: 270 passengers

Bus stops	3600 C (6 * 600 C)
Busses	12000 (2400 C * 6)
Total	15600 C

Medium sized city
4 Stations (each two tiles)
Capacy: 240 passengers

Rails	10 000 C (100 tiles * 100 C)
Overhead lines	8000 C(100 tiles * 80 C)
Stations	24000 C (4 * 2 * 2400 C)
Train	26000 (2 vehicles)
Removing of Streets	5000 (50 tiles)
Removing of Buildings	4000 (4 small buildings)
Total	76800 C

Only profitable in large citys

Result

Use busses in small cities (< 6000)

Use trains in large cities (> 7000)