q1. About frequency ? For example… I have a double track connecting two cities and two trains on it. Frequency is 8min. What happens or what is the difference if I set another same line and put one train from line 1 to line 2. So that I have two lines with one train on it connecting two cities. Frequency of each line is 16min .. but in practice frequency between cities is 8min.. do I loose potential travelers or they will automatically pick the line which has train closest to station ?

to make it more clear:

example A line 1:   city 1 —————- 2x trains (freq 8min) ————– city 2                                                          vs.
example B line 1:  city 1 —————– 1x train (freq 16min) ————– city 2
example B line 2:  city 1 —————– 1x train (freq 16min) ————– city 2

q2.  I have a “capital” city (example A) in map center with big station .. and surrounding cities C,D,E,F

From A I have multiple lines (2 train/line) to connect each city . All is fine, money is floating in .. Is there any benefit to create direct lines between C-D-E-F ? .. currently if anyone want to go from C to D must go C – A – D … if I connect C-D directly .. I will gain or loose something ?

q3. As I know citizens will pick the optimal transport for their needs…. about my previous point where I have a big station connecting multiple cities. Is there any difference if I create multiple smaller station spread around city instead of one big central?

q4. station placement in the city? .. I put passenger station near residential cones, and cargo for goods near commercial.

q5. Each city has residents and jobs , luxuries ect…  how do I know how many residents are willing to go to a specific city? .. is there a way to know for example 20% of peoples work on city X? .. or they find a job there after they have a line connected? in short …how to know what cities is better to connect ?

thanx

Q2: If C and D are on one common line C-A-D, you don’t need to connect C and D directly. If you have 2 crossing lines: line C-A-D and E-A-F, then it might me beneficial to make a connection between the surrounding cities (eg C-E, D-F), but it might put in danger your 2 main lines. I would not make the extra connection unless the stions are more the 20-minutes away from city A

Q3: one big central station reduces the necessity (and time wasting) to get from station to station by bus or tram. Several smaller stations around the city can encourage city grow, but I would maintain a central hub.

Q4: Passengers station near residential quarter is ok, but cargo lays better near industry.

Q5: you don’t know. The program will select at random an new destination. There is no general habit, fixed work or other pattern programed for the moment. So for instants each “day” a person is leaving fore work it will be another work place. So, with this kind of behaviour, it is impossible to predict how many people are going to take the train to a nearby city. I would personally like to see this changed, and for instance have that people have near-fixed work places. Only Then one can make traffic statistics and predictions.

I hope my humble remarks can help you in developing a railway network. Succes and have fun! Train Fever is no exact science, but lot of testing en trying to figure out how things work. 😉

about q2 …  main city A is in the center … if I connect C and D directly i get a faster and shorter way than using middle station in city A … is there any way to calculate traveling time? .. because there is no way of knowing how much time-profit passengers would have with a direct line… i don’t know neither if a passengers vrom C goes to D or all passengers from C and D go only to A …

i’d like to have some more info about game mechanics…

@theuros wrote:

“i’d like to have some more info about game mechanics…”

We all do! Not only about game mechanics but about the entire game. Manuals are still missing, ingame info is spares, error feedback is confusing… We are all waiting for manuals. Untill then, it’s trying, testing and finding out by reading on fora and experiences by playing the game. 😉

see /2014/01/simulation-basics/

quote, basil on January 26, 2014 at 21:49 said:

Are you simulating people with a fixed residential and work place or are the destinations chosen randomly each time the person shows up in the game?

Each time a person goes to work, shopping or leisure, a random destination within some maximal distance / traveling time is computed. At the moment, it’s randomly chosen each time, but it’s likely that we try to keep the working place constant at least (because in reality the working place stays constant for a long time). The residential place (home building) is constant of course.

Q1: I think there’s no benefit for 2 lines on the exact same route. In fact you might lsoe passangers because they don’t find a route with good enough frequency. Just use 3rd vehicle on same line if it’s financially feasible or better frequency is required (at 8 minutes I’d probably try a 3rd one, it should work out after some time)

Q2: I wondered myself, but if people from C can get to D within 20 minutes (including some estimated walking time + take buses within cities) then I don’t think there’s any benefit for lines between C and D. Experiment. 🙂

Q3: As long as you have decent local transportation and 1 central rain station in each, and people can get from anywhere to anywhere within 20 minutes I don’t think it matters. Of course it’s not easy to calculate their travel time, I just try and estimate stuff. (I figure, roughly travel time should be around, line frequency / number of vehicles * 2).

Q4: Passengers go from residential to industrial and others and they go back home too, but often my city lines show that lines that prefer industrial districts work with a loss, it seems like people – while they do – are not so likely to switch lines.. not entirely sure about this one. Eg. I have line A that goes around residential area and line B that shares a couple of stations with A but goes around other areas, A will make profit B might not. Dunno. I generally prefer to have more stations in residential areas but touch some key points in other areas as well with some line combination. For train stations it depends, I like to place them around residential areas (and close to an  internal bus/tram station), but in fact people from a city go to shop or work to another. I think it just matters that they should be able to take full trip within 20 min.

Q5: Afaik there’s no way to exactly calculate, but generally there’s always some people that want to travel. To see how much a route will use, you need to make a route and use it for some years then you’ll find out. I just try to be efficient, logically, and I am careful with use o trains because they’re very expensive to maintain, sometimes it’s difficult to make them turn a profit (eg. use cheaper engines on passenger lines and I just use best trains for high yield raw to secondary industry lines eg. where I serve 6-8 cities with one industry)

I am not sure I care about lack of manuals, most things I found out by experimenting and some I learn here on forums. I found that a lot of things just make sense after you have a few pointers, the 20 minutes rule is most important and following a person or two shows you basically how the system works.

bencze => (I figure, roughly travel time should be around, line frequency / number of vehicles * 2).

I think that formula is to inacurate .. you can’t split freq. by no of veichler .. freq is the max time someone is at the station .. ‘ there is train traveling time which is unknown.

is hard to follow the rule under 20min if there is no way to get an estimate time between stations …

So should I make lines that go to 1 town only like A to B, A to C, A to D, etc? That would serve more citizens, as a person on a train to B than to C would take more time than a direct route.

I connect all cities with fast service and still many choose car.