People prefer a LONGER route?

[simonmd]

Ok, this is weird. We all know about the ’20 min’ rule and the fact that the people / goods will usualy prefer to take the quickest route option, whether it be rail, car, even walking, etc.

I have a small map going that’s in the 2000’s now that’s pretty prosperous and have tons of  spare cash to play with so thought id experiment with replacing a branch line with a ‘light rail’ route using 100kph trams. The branch line itself was loosing money every year, never having more than 5 or so passengers. Even upgrading with 200kph brand new trains didn’t help so I sold off the train and built a light rail route using tramtracks on a country road with buslanes so road traffic stays off. Low and behold, the trams are FULL and making tons of money!

How can this be when they start and finish at roughly the same point as the branch line but take longer than the corresponding rail route?

• This topic was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by simonmd.

[Norfolk_Chris]

This is what happens in the real world.

In Manchester when the ‘heavy’ rail line from Manchester Victoria to Rochdale via Oldham was converted to light rail, usage very rapidly increased to 3 times the previous usage and still rising!  (The trams serve the city and town centers whereas the trains called at stations on edge of towns.)

This would be a nice feature to add to the game, the ability to convert existing rail lines for light rail use, allowing connection to tram lines in the cities.  This would avoid the need to provide new inter city tram tracks.

The feature would also enable the construction of new light rail routes. Steeper gradients would be allowed on lines constructed for light rail.

This would also enable US type interurban lines.

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