Nonfunctional Rail/Ferry

[errantry 0]

Hi. I'm trying to learn how to use railroads and ferries, but I can't seem to get either to work. For the rail, I tried a simple system with a residential district connected to a dirty industry via rail (see attached picture), but it doesn't connect the two, and both become abandoned quickly. Same when I try to use monorails.

Essentially the same problem with ferries, where I have two districts both attached to ferries, but they don't actually connect to each other.  Although it does connect to ferries in a neighboring cities.

I'm using NAM right now, if that helps.

Edit: I played with ferries some more. It seems like there is a distance (depth?) effect. When my two ferries terminals are on the same side of a bay, they can connect, but not when they are on opposite side of the bay. Could any confirm if ferries have a distance limitation?

[Quiksilver4250 0]

For the rail, did you place a passenger station in the industrial area?

For instance, I have a rail line that leaves a mainly residential/ht city and crosses to a dirty/manu city. I have several stations in the residential city, and a large passenger terminal in the industrial city with many bus stops. That way, people board in the residential city, go to the industrial city, get off at the terminal, jump on a bus and go to work. I dont have SC4 running right now otherwise I would post a pic.

Also, is the mass transit the most direct option of connecting the 2 areas? Like, is there a bridge crossing the same body of water that the ferry does?

Did you install a park and ride version of the NAM?

[errantry 0]

I think I did connect them. See the attached picture. I don't get the "no connection" zog, but the rail doesn't actually get used.

There is no road connecting the two. Just rail. My test is pretty small, so people and industry is within 6 grids of the station. And I didn't install the park and ride version of NAM.

[CaptCity 4,753]

You're saying your rail and monorail do not work? Have you tried el-rail yet? Is this the first time you've tried to use NAM? If you have a left-hand version of the game and do not install the left-hand component of NAM, any of the rail networks will not work. Just a thought...

Tried your little setup...



Seems to be OK if everything is running correctly.


As for the ferries, I don't use them that much, but I think there could be a minimum depth requirement in front of the terminals for the ferries to approach. Someone might have more info on that.

[Merlin of Flyote 8]

Rail use does take time to occur and your test pics show the res and indus areas to be too small for rail use to develop.

Ferries do connect both sides of a river/bay or between mainland and an island on the same tile, use about level 4 to watch them. But again they take time to get going dependant on your population.

[tungston 19]

There is no distance limit for the ferry.  If you use custom ferry terminals, some are closer to the shore [Pegasus'] than the default, so you need to make sure the water is deep enough in front of the station.

Ferry's will work between stations in the same city, and are excellent transits between cities, as there is no time penalty once the sims have boarded.  You need the same type of stations, car, or passenger, one for boarding, and one for offloading, for them to work.

[bigthing 35]

Ferry terminals have to be in relitivly deep water. You cant have one car and one passenger (hence the differant types of ferries)

As for the rail, do your sims drive on the left?

If so when you installed NAM are you sure you installed the left hand plugin along with it?

its in the tick box section (where you say if you want to install simulator z for example).

[mayor_brando 8]

Yeah, you might wanna reinstall the NAM and pick simulator Z. It works wonders for rail and MT.

[errantry 0]

Okay. Thanks to everyone for the answers. Regarding rail, it was solved when I reinstalled NAM for Left-handed option.

For ferries, they seem to work, but don't connect the way I envision. I have a passenger ferry terminal on a commercial zone, and one for a residential zone. The residential zone terminal routes off the map (into what, I don't know. I have no terminals in other cities), and the commercial terminal doesn't connect (but has people in it...) I play with it some more.

[zurrabear 20]

Regarding your rail problem: if what you have in the pic is your entire city, I'm guessing you simply don't have any demand for mass transit yet...? Seems to me the Sims take the simplest option and given what you're showing here, driving is probably taking precedence. I wouldn't even bother with mass transit other than buses until the city is a lot more developed.

[Automaton 0]

I'm having trouble with rail, all my stations seems to be maxed out. Oddly, it seems that passengers are getting off and getting back on at each stop, so with a chain of stations, the first will be super overloaded, while each additional a little less so.

I'm using the NAM z pathfinding medium, as well as Jasoncw's train station pack mixed with stock stations.

[Rionescu 14]

Originally posted by: Automaton

I'm having trouble with rail, all my stations seems to be maxed out. Oddly, it seems that passengers are getting off and getting back on at each stop, so with a chain of stations, the first will be super overloaded, while each additional a little less so.

I'm using the NAM z pathfinding medium, as well as Jasoncw's train station pack mixed with stock stations.quote>

It might appear like that, but as far as I know the game counts every train that passes by the station, not just the ones that stop so that's probably why you're getting high usage. If you place your stations off a spur of the main line, you won't have the passer-bys so your usage will only show people getting on and off the trains.

[bigthing 35]

Welcome To Simtropolis!!!

When i saw me i got worried because i didnt remember posting for a while but now i see you bumped the thread.

Yes, there are many flaws similar to this in the game. Sadly all you can do is work around them.

If you have a topic, don't hesitate to start a new thread if the last one was years ago, but if it was recent (say within a month) then it should be fine to bump.

If you need any help dont hesitate to PM me. Im always happy to make someone else happy!!!