I suggest you do it as they do it in the real world. They use …..
A hub or hubs with lines that go out from this hub like spokes on a bicycle wheel. Then further out there is
A circle line or lines that go all the way around and connect the spokes. The spokes are lines that go out to an end point and then turn around and come back the same way. Subway lines are often in a spoke system.
In less dense cities you use loops to go through “those city blocks” on the way out and through “those other city blocks” on the way back to the hub in order to pack the buss full of passengers. But that is in less dense cities like when we start a Train Fever map.
The biggest buss station in Train Fever can handle 4 lines. This will be you hub. And it will have 4 loops going out from it.
1) residential area loop
2) industry / workplace loop
3) leasure time loop
4) “anything” loop on the way to train station. It will pass whatever type of buildings are on the way to the train station.
One big loop going through the town is not as good as the system above. Imagine a passenger whining “I was just going to the train station … why! do I have to ride through the industry area and this or that or that to get there?!?”. I think he rather walk if that is faster.
You as a planner do not know where a passenger want to go. The system above satisfies everything.
Home -> hub -> work
Home -> hub -> fun
Home -> hub -> train station.
This quickly produce a very long list of lines if you do this in every city. But it seems the game can handle if it is all just one big line. Station -> hub -> Home -> hub -> work -> hub -> fun -> hub -> station. Everytime the same line comes back to the hub it uses another parking spot for the buses.
Now, imagine the town growing. You can have several of these hubs with “4 loops”. But they all have the 3 loops and the 4th connecting to the train station.
It is now time to create the first circular line going through each of the hubs. But it seems no way to free up a slot. Ok then. Build another big buss station! well, why not build a big tram station instead! Right next to the big buss hubs is a tram station. The tram station is used by the new circular line that have to go in both directions so 2 slots are used up in the tram hub. But hey! you have 2 more slots in each tram hub. I suggest you use the 3rd to go directly to the train station. And then you have 1 slot free in the tram station to what you want with.
In this system the passengers will find they can go wherever they want, it may require changing vehicle at some point.
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I haven’t built any tram lines yet having too much trouble with cargo trains. But if I go a really big city in the future and too much traffic. Then maybe the direct tram lines from “tram hubs” -> “train station tram hub” could have zero stops on the way to the train station …. If they do not have any stop on the way maybe they pick another lane …. would be good, one lane for local busses … and another for through traffic ….. should increase capacity.