Playing on 'hard' setting

[plnrmatt]

I’ve just graduated to playing on the ‘hard’ setting, which has been challenging but fun. I started at 1850 and have just reached 2000 and it was only around the 1990s that I started to have enough cash coming in (only a few million tho!) to start spending without too much worry. I think it’s great that the game is actually hard the whole way through rather than just at the start.

I’m keen to know other people’s strategies while playing on the ‘hard’ setting. The parts I struggle with most (and would love some advice on) are:

1. how to get buses and trams to turn a profit. I have no lines in the black they are all at least 30-50 down each year;
2. what are the best type of routes for buses/trams to get the max no. of passengers to a train station (single lines, loops, intersecting lines?);
3. how far apart to space bus/tram stops be placed from each other;
4. finding the best location for train stations. Should they always be in the residential areas? I’ve found stations in industrial areas dont do so well; and
5. train route type. Is it better to have one train line serving numerous stations in a chain or is it best to have lines just going between two towns?.

thanks!

[Nope17]

I`ve also just finished a hard game in 2000, and it worked pretty well, used almost exclusively trains and reached more than 500 mio on my account in the end. Regarding your questions:

1. In the inner city transport it´s almost impossible to have profits for busses and trams in the late game in the hard modus. I used as few lines as possible, some towns I left without public transport, anyway they all remained quite small in comparison with games I played before, and distances were short, so people could walk

2. Usually I prefer intersecting loops, that I serve in both directions

3.  Not too close. I leave quite a large distance from the train station for the first bus/tram stop, and my loop-lines usually have 5-8 stations, using maybe 5-6 vehicles to reach a 60-second (or shorter) frequency

4. Placing trains stations close to residential areas makes sense, since people always go home before/after each other activity, therefore the residential areas do have the highest activity. Nonetheless, when travel by train to the next town does not take more than 5-6 minutes, I sometimes place the train stations on the part of town opposite to the residential area, and provide a high frequency inner city transport. People will start using the inner city transport in large numbers, and given the longer distances these might become profitable again (which might be a tip for question 1. as well)

5. It`s much better to have long lines serving several towns. I just started a game where one line connects 6 towns with ten trains, and in 1880 I already have 200+ persons waiting at some of the stations (with towns having 600-800 inhabitants). My problem now is that train engines are too weak to make trains long enough to meet demand

[mata.lan]

Hi, now I’am  playing one game on hard (about 50 hours) and now I’am in 1940 and 10M profit per year)

1 – if you want a profitable bus or tram, you have to build a long route (intercity). Every bus can be profitable (even horses). One my route has 60 pc L’Obéissante and +300K per year.
City bus and tram may not profit, it is only train support (trains have passengers thanks to them)

2 – IMO it should be single lines (train station to industrial, train station to residential etc.), but I used loops for more realism

3 – not too close, every stop takes few seconds. Not too far, walk may take minutes. I placed them as close to crossroads

4 – good urban transport is better than good place. But yes, it should be somewhere near residential and leisure

5 – every I used a two-way train circuit (5-10 stations) and urban bus/tram routes. Once I used 3 station route (in shape Y) and one train, it was very profitable, but I don’t like it.

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