Inter-city train problems

[cronatucf 0]

I've been playing Simcity 4 for a couple weeks now and still can't figure out how to make the trains work ( el train and passenger).  I can't seem to get people to travel from city to city in my region on the trains.  If I don't connect roads between cities then the people won't travel at all.  Even when I put the el train or passenger train in a single city the people only use it to park and walk to their work/home.  Thanks!!

[Apankou 6]

I'm not an expert in the game mechanics, but I am building up an inter-city-train network as well. Place stations next to residential and next to industry/commercial areas in a way that it is the next and easiest way for your sims to get to work and back. They will only travel to neighbouring cities if they have to, so if there are enough jobs for them in their hometown they won't commute longer than necessary, and only freight would be exported to your neighbours.

However, that's my experience. I often see that rail lines are not used directly as they are established, they need some development.

EDIT: that's only for heavy rail/ground railway, of course. I never use EL in my cities, partially because I usually don't let them grow too big, so it would look kind of exaggerated.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Both ground and el rail work just fine.  Some things to know, perhaps.

You must have stations where the Sims will use them.  If the direct distance between the job and the Sims home is shorter by car/road, they won't take the train.

Ground rail has virtually unlimited parking, but for el-rail you will need parking facilites (parking garage).

If Sims travel by rail, you must provide buses for ground transport at the destination end.

Sims won't travel if the distance involved is beyond the program's commute distance.  You'll just get abandonments.

Rail stations have a capacity of 2,000.  If you overload them, seek solutions on the STEX.

[joshriddle 29]

I don't ever use el trains. I stick to T-RAM since I have the NAM. The only time I ever use passenger rail is in the suburbs or connecting cities.

But I only use Tram if the population needs it. Usually that threshold is around 125,000 residents. Anything lower then that I use RTMT Bus stops.

What I usually do in the way of busing is just randomly place stops everywhere. But when it comes to my Tram or sometimes passenter rail, I always use a layout where I have stations right in the middle of my residental sector, and then in comemrcial, then industrial. Usually I run Tram throughout my major streets all across the suburbs. My major streets seemingly are always busy and my neighborhood streets never get any wear and tear. Which is realistic. My industrial pod has some bus stops in them, but usually since my industrial sectors do get pretty big, I sometimes use the "You don't deserve it" cheat and unlock the grand rail station, and place it inside my industrial sector. Outside of that I decided to start placing some freight rail stations in there after an incident of freight trucks tearing up my nice neighborhoods, which makes for a nice looking rail station.

Usually rail capacities only top out at ten, now they are at 100. But this one hundred is due to a tiny industrial sector. I would like to see the freight traffic on one of my giant industry zones. Another thing I noticed too is the freight drivers are extremely stubborn and will not use train unless you make them. As for passenger train, they are relatively easy to coax into using the train to go to work.

So really the sims are cheap. They don't want to walk ten tiles to go to work, so I always have to place mass transit in my clean neighborhoods. Which is why I make a road going through there. It would be like having a bus stop on the little neighborhood street I live in. So the sims seem to go for it and drive off to the next station.

As for region travel, that is tricky. I always use passenger train to connect cities. But what I do in that case is I place my city on the edge of the development on the side of the city facing the neighbor connections. If it is surrounded by neighbors that makes for a very very good regional mass transit system, and I have Tram and passenger trains everywhere. So usually if I have a downtown in the center of a giant suburban area, I run Tram through the entire thing, and sometimes I may even use the el train that sits on top of roads, which is a feature of the latest NAM version.

Another thing you can do is open the TSCT (Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool) which comes with the NAM, (unless you choose not to install it) and set mass transit usage higher, and build your own traffic simulator while you are at it.

[a2A209_ 10]

Did you connect them to your neighboring city?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Cood question, Josh.  How do you do intercity connects with TRAM?  You know you have to transition them to El, even for a few grids to do that.

Generally, I don't use light rail at all.  I use either ground rail or monorail.  It all works fine for me.  Ground rail stations are so cheap you can have them everywhere.  You can run rail spurs into your neighborhoods if you like, or you can have your main line pass either through or adjacent to your residential area.  If it is adjacent to the area, provide buses to get to the stations.

I only use monorail for long hops and interurban heavy passenger loads if the rail can't handle it all.  You need parking facilites at monorail stations for residential, with buses and buses at the destination ends.

Your roads must not be shorter for commute than your rail lines.  After all, rail goes across country.

[z1 566]

If you've only been playing SC4 for a couple of weeks, you probably don't have the NAM (Network Addon Mod) installed.  The traffic simulator that comes with the game is ancient and very poorly configured; it alone could easily be the source of your problems.  It's strongly recommended to use the NAM traffic simulator, either by downloading the entire NAM (which gets you many other wonderful things as well), or at least the NAM Traffic Subsystem.

Originally posted by: A Nonny Moose

You must have stations where the Sims will use them.  If the direct distance between the job and the Sims home is shorter by car/road, they won't take the train.quote>

If the NAM traffic simulator is used, Sims will always take the fastest route.  Trains are almost three times faster than cars traveling by road, so Sims will take a train route that is twice as long as a road route, and still get to their destination faster.

Ground rail has virtually unlimited parking...quote>

The Maxis train station has parking for several thousand cars; the exact number depends on how many pedestrians use the station, as the total is constant at about 8000 (contrary to the stated station capacity).  In large cities, it is very easy to overwhelm this number, and have the train stations stop working.  Non-Maxis train stations may or may not have parking attached.

If Sims travel by rail, you must provide buses for ground transport at the destination end.quote>

This depends on how far the destination is from the station.  With the NAM traffic simulator, Sims are happy to walk several blocks, or sometimes more.

Sims won't travel if the distance involved is beyond the program's commute distance.  You'll just get abandonments.quote>

Although this is technically true, with the NAM traffic simulator at standard settings, the maximum commute distance encompasses any trips that the Sims could possibly take.

Rail stations have a capacity of 2,000.  If you overload them, seek solutions on the STEX.quote>

Although the nominal capacity is 2000, as with all transit stations, this is a bogus number.  The actual capacity is around 8000; when the actual capacity is exceeded, the stations don't suffer from congestion, but instead experience catastrophic failure, and shut down for the rest of the day.

[lalippi 7]

Interesting stuff Z1, thank you