A 250 passenger train right from the word go? No wonder it isn’t profitable. It takes many many years for a new train line to see that many passengers use it.
For a route to be profitable, your income from fares must exceed the cost of running expenses. More carriages = more expensive. If a passenger train isn’t at least half full, it’ll make a loss.
The other thing I note is you’re competing with yourself. If you want your train line between cities to carry passengers, why are you also running bus lines between the cities?
Something else you say, your train line is one big loop, serving 8 cities in just one direction and has just 3 trains running on it? I somehow doubt the actual frequency of each city receiving a train is every 6 minutes or so. That’s a more believable figure for 1 train going back and fourth between 2 cities, so 3 trains between 8… Also of course your train loop is only going in one direction, so people in the top left city wanting to go to the top middle left city wont see the point of going all the way round the game map, so they’re using your buses to go straight there instead…
Try:
-removing bus routes between cities
-double up the track in your loop so you can run trains both clockwise and counter clockwise.
-adding more trains with fewer carriages. You need to keep an eye on passenger numbers and adjust your train sizes to suit. Remember a passenger train needs to be at least half full to make profit, don’t add too many carriages… Also too many carriages might slow the train down too much if it isn’t strong enough to pull them, and passengers wont use your trains if they’re slower than cars or buses.
