Tips for building bus lines?

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  • #21265
    LaureeGrd
    Participant

    I was making money with my old stage coach lines, but I reached 1900 and wanted to expand and add trams on big cities. Now I have in my main town, a tram line that’s making little profit and two bus lines, wich are losing money. How can I improve my lines? Thanks, this forum is really helping me to understand the game

     

    #21364
    SanditeChief
    Participant

    If you have any more than one line running through your city, then the other line’s income will cannibalize each other. Let me give you some advice now that I finally got it down… 😉

    1.  First, when you are planning out your route, know where you want to place your stations and how far apart they need to be
    2. Then, when you place your stations, check to make sure that you are hitting the ‘hot spots’ where there is a lot of foot traffic
    3. As you’re placing the stations, only put a couple stations in each zone (color), if you place too many, it will take too long for your buses, trams, to be profitable.
    4.  Using a ‘Ring-road’ method is preferred for maximum profits with no more than 12-14 stations, any more than that and your line’s income will diminish, no matter how many buses/trams you have.
    5. There may come a time where you will have to connect some sections of road together. For example: if there is a long stretch of road with houses, industry, etc, and there is another stretch of road nearby with leisure, residential, etc, connect those and put a stop in each section.
    6. Putting stops at or nearby intersections is recommended since people don’t jay-walk in this game (hehe)

    Now with that said, you should have some profitable lines whether they’re buses or trams. When your cities grow you can add another line using the same stations going the other direction or you can add a few more stations where people have relocated near your station to compensate. If you see buildings disappearing around your stops, remove the stops since nobody will be using them.  Be sure that your lines do not intersect, it is not efficient that way.
    I think I’ve almost perfected my bus and tram routes to the point that ONE of my trams is making 750K a year! That line only has 5 trams and 10 stops, just a few stops in each zone, and the route follows a ring-road direction that keeps the line running smoothly and quickly.

    I hope this helps you as much that it helped me. I’ve logged almost 300 hours on Steam and I’m still playing and learning. I’m always trying out new methods to see what works best and that’s what you’re just gonna have to do too to get better, but I can almost promise you that my method will work in the time being.

    Just a little tid bit for ya, this game tends to draw some very ridiculous intersections and sections of road that are pointless. When you get the money later in the game, try and do some city planning so your lines will be even more efficient. A good way to prevent the game from placing roads where you don’t want them is to place assets such as a lamp post at an intersection. Eventually you can have a nice looking grid system that the game could NEVER draw! I would post a picture of an example but I’m too lazy =P

    • This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by SanditeChief.
    #21373
    LaureeGrd
    Participant

    Oh, thanks. There’s really good stuff there. I’ll try it later as long with other cool tips I received on another post here and another on Steam. The only thing that I didn’t understad well is “A good way to prevent the game from placing roads where you don’t want them is to place assets such as a lamp post at an intersection”. I know I can do that placing small pieces of track, but what do you mean with “lamp post at an intersection”? Thanks

    #21379
    SanditeChief
    Participant

    You can inhibit auto road placement by placing the new lamp post asset. All you have to do is place it where there is an intersection. If there is a road that you don’t like, destroy it and place a lamp post there and the road won’t come back. The lamp post is small enough where you won’t notice it and it doesn’t cost anything to maintain like tracks do. It’s a much cheaper and better solution than tracks. I used to use tracks too. You could also place fences next the intersections and that would work too.

    #21383
    canophone
    Participant

    I learned pretty quickly that an easy way to generate early profit from bus/tram lines is to connect two cities with less inbound stops and more outbound stops, on decently straight routes ending at a station on each end. As the cities grow, it becomes more feasible to adjust and add more local lines.

    • This reply was modified 8 years ago by canophone.
    • This reply was modified 8 years ago by canophone.
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