Sims suddenly stopped using mass transit

[zoobtro 0]

So I unpause after spending an hour making my first sunken highway and this happens. Sims just suddenly stopped using mass transit. I'm using NAM but I haven't touched any of the plugin files. It seems if I bulldoze and replace stations, use gradually starts up between them but only between the replaced stations. I don't want to have to replace every single station in my city, there are dozens upon dozens of them

Any ideas? I've tried reinstalling NAM and deleting some of the latest plugins I'd downloaded (such as some of the stuff I used for my first sunken highway) but nothing seems to work

[bigthing 35]

That is a pickle, Its not just the Mass Transit that drops but everything!? My first guess would have been weather you installed the LHD plugin (if needed) or not.

You should check everything and see if anything has changed (plugins-costs e.t.c)

Is it just the map or is there noone using the transit?

[Jezus53 18]

Originally posted by: zoobtro

So I unpause after spending an hour making my first sunken highway and this happens. Sims just suddenly stopped using mass transit. I'm using NAM but I haven't touched any of the plugin files. It seems if I bulldoze and replace stations, use gradually starts up between them but only between the replaced stations. I don't want to have to replace every single station in my city, there are dozens upon dozens of them

Any ideas? I've tried reinstalling NAM and deleting some of the latest plugins I'd downloaded (such as some of the stuff I used for my first sunken highway) but nothing seems to work

quote>

A few questions, did you destroy alot of residential? Has your population increased over the years afterthe sunken highway was built? Was it by a lot or a small amount? Did you accidentally destroy and subway lines or re route rail to make it go out of it's way, thus making the trip longer? Maybe a few pictures would help too.

[SC4BOY 20]

depending on your routing, they may just like your new highway better than your mass transit routing.. I believe the simulator bases its choices on "fastest" Only when the congestion starts getting quite bad will it start re-routing traffic

[zoobtro 0]

Originally posted by: bigthing

That is a pickle, Its not just the Mass Transit that drops but everything!? My first guess would have been weather you installed the LHD plugin (if needed) or not.

You should check everything and see if anything has changed (plugins-costs e.t.c)

Is it just the map or is there noone using the transit?quote>

Nope, didn't install LHD. My other smaller cities in the region are still using transit. the small amount of bus usage in that graph after the crash is a town of 10,000 all travelling in via bus.

Originally posted by: Jezus53

A few questions, did you destroy alot of residential? Has your population increased over the years afterthe sunken highway was built? Was it by a lot or a small amount? Did you accidentally destroy and subway lines or re route rail to make it go out of it's way, thus making the trip longer? Maybe a few pictures would help too.

quote>

destroyed a tiny (1 street, maybe 20 tiles) of res & com for the highway but nothing that should affect anything.didn't destroy anything important since the highway is on the very edge of my city. no pop increase since this happened the second i unpaused after finishing the highway from scratch. the pop decreased by nearly 100,000 but soon picked back up.  i can provide pics but there's nothing really to see except a bunch of no job zots and abandoned buildings lol.

I've just replaced most of my subway stations and here's how it looks.

I guess I'm going to be bulldozing and replacing for the next few hours lol. this is quite the task.

Originally posted by: SC4BOY

depending on your routing, they may just like your new highway better than your mass transit routing.. I believe the simulator bases its choices on "fastest" Only when the congestion starts getting quite bad will it start re-routing trafficquote>

only a few freight trucks use the highway. all in all the highway was a massive failure lol

the city is now back on its feet after huge abandonment but the mass transit needs a complete replacement of every single station. done the subways, now to start on the 100 odd bus stops. what a horrible glitch/bug that was. heres hoping it never happens again. if it does on this scale i think i might uninstall simcity 4 in a fit of rage lol

[SC4BOY 20]

Pretty strange.. never seen that

[CaptCity 4,669]

Moved here from General Discussion.

[z1 566]

My guess would be that your city file somehow got corrupted. If you have a version from before you made your change, you could try that.

[finlay 0]

I feel your pain man ... exact same thing just happened to me

[Wileysolo3420 0]

It just happened to me too........ and my city is huge. The sims are not using the mass transit system at all. They areent even walking.......all my stations have gone blank. Monorail, tram, subway,. Right now i dont even want to play anymore someone please help or explain this problem......

[z1 566]

Originally posted by: Wileysolo3420

It just happened to me too........ and my city is huge. The sims are not using the mass transit system at all. They areent even walking.......all my stations have gone blank. Monorail, tram, subway,. Right now i dont even want to play anymore someone please help or explain this problem......quote>

Could you please give some more details of your problem?  What did you do right before the Sims stopped using mass transit?  Did you install any new types of stations, a new version of the NAM, etc.?  How long has this problem been going on?  (In Sim years, that is.)

If you could post a 10-year traffic volume graph, much like those posted above, that would be very helpful too.

[Wileysolo3420 0]

I havent been able to recover the city and have since moved on to a new city but all values dropped to zero. meaning no pedestrian use, no cars buses monorail tram, I recently had replaced Grand Centtral Station but had done that many times. I also re routed a few avenues and streets. It was as if the the rerouting caused the transportation system to crash.

[Loki77 0]

what the hell?... same thing just happened to me... one minute my sims were using it almost full capacity, next minute absolutley nothing...

all I did was add a bit to one of my avenues...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I seem to remember that if your subway system is too complex the saves don't work properly.

[z1 566]

I seem to remember that if your subway system is too complex the saves don't work properly.

I believe I was the one who reported this. I found that if my subway system was extremely extensive (with a large portion of a large tile containing subway tiles, a fair number of which were intersecting), then the game would tend to crash frequently when I tried to save it. (This was using an unmodded game.) In these cases, the previous saved game was unaffected. The more subway tiles were present, the larger the chance of crashing on save was. Then I discovered and installed the NAM, which made most of those subway lines unnecessary. As I gradually got rid of them, the chance of crashing on save gradually decreased, until at some point it disappeared entirely.

So while this may be interesting, it doesn't explain the problems being reported.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Since there was little information in the post, I took a stab in the dark.

[jabezscratch 159]

The problem being discussed has just happened to me. It happened in my biggest city (that I essentially use as a downtown business core: pop = 700,000, com jobs = 1,600,000). The city has very extensive mass transit, including complex intersecting subways and lots of monorails and train rail.

The problem came suddenly. I tried what the OP did, which was demolishing and replacing various bus stops, train stations, monorail depots, etc. and that fixes the problem. I have the same issue though that the OP has: this is a massive city with extensive mass transit. It would take hours of work to replace the mass transit.

I have a backup of this city that is only about three weeks old so I may just reload that one and save the headache of replacing all the mass transit.

[NCGAIO 562]

I think here should be taken into account the intricate routing of transit when the metro system and extensive with a high number of intersections.

In the graph we can see that all traffic underground was brought to zero and gradually replaced leaving it idle

Anyone who has accidentally destroyed (eg, myself) a metro line in these conditions may have seen similar problem.

Several paths Ped / bus / sub / Ped or ped / sub / ped who apparently has nothing to do with the affected area are canceled. Often there are also Car / sub / Ped or Bus / sub / Ped.

Depending on what was being done and how the traffic was routed maybe this effect has spread in the passage locator destination that according with Z1 has many peculiar behaviors regarding subways as highlights in " A Guide to the Operation of the Traffic Simulator."

Without a picture of what was being done I think it is difficult for everyone seeking the cause of the problem.

  Edited September 3, 2012 by NCGAIO  

[jabezscratch 159]

I think here should be taken into account the intricate routing of transit when the metro system and extensive with a high number of intersections.

In the graph we can see that all traffic underground was brought to zero and gradually replaced leaving it idle

Anyone who has accidentally destroyed (eg, myself) a metro line in these conditions may have seen similar problem.

Several paths Ped / bus / sub / Ped or ped / sub / ped who apparently has nothing to do with the affected area are canceled. Often there are also Car / sub / Ped or Bus / sub / Ped.

Depending on what was being done and how the traffic was routed maybe this effect has spread in the passage locator destination that according with Z1 has many peculiar behaviors regarding subways as highlights in " A Guide to the Operation of the Traffic Simulator."

Without a picture of what was being done I think it is difficult for everyone seeking the cause of the problem.

I think that you're correct in surmising that this issue arises largely when transportation is demolished, accidentally or intentionally. That seems to have a spillover effect across the entire city and makes the current transportation unused and apparently unusable. As I noted in my initial post, I've demolished and replaced some of the existing transportation (i.e., bus stops, train stations, etc.) and that works. The only downside is the time and effort it takes to replace the transportation items in an entire city. And, of course, this issue seems to arise most readily in the largest cities, which would naturally have the most varied and large transportation network.

[z1 566]

If replopping mass transit stations fixes this problem, then it is a game bug.

[jabezscratch 159]

For me, the issue arose right after I demolished a big block of residential all at once. That would have taken down a lot of bus stops, monorail/train depots, etc. Something tells me that triggered the issue. I reloaded a relatively recent backup of the city and I'm going to continue with the backup. I guess the other lesson is to backup frequently.