passenger rail

[simneal 0]

as this is my first post ever here, i feel obligated to write a brief CV:

i've been playing simcity for a long time. played SC4 when it first came out and didn't do very well. then picked it up again about a year ago, and had a problem where it kept crashing so i got frustrated and stopped playing (seriously, try playing SC4 for 30 minutes and then having the game crash without saving!) i finally figured out the problem. has to do with multi-threaded processors and is a simple fix. now i'm hooked again.

i'm playing SC4 STOCK. no mods. i have the deluxe version which includes all the patches as well as rush hour.

on to my topic of discussion:

as i grow more experienced in city layout i would like to start adding rail to my cities. in real life i am a very big fan of rail for INTERcity travel. of course i am also a proponent of INTRAcity commuter rail, but that will be a future project.

right now i have three cities that are connected by rail and all three have passenger rail stations. as you could probably guess, i see 0% usage on the info screens for these stations. however in one city i DO have passenger rail traffic on the rail (despite the 0% usage).

i would like to encourage my sims (or make it easier for them) to travel to other cities by rail.

any tips? i have done some reading but i don't see anything that is very helpful.

for instance, does a passenger rail station require a parking garage? or can sims park their cars at the station? (the station is not near the residential sector)

will sims use passenger rail for INTRAcity commuting if it's convenient to them? in a small town it seems more convenient to everyone to use roads for the time being. but as i'm not that good at SC4 (yet), INTRAcity mass transit is something that i will have to eventually figure out if i want my cities to grow. right now i usually level out at the ~100,000pop area.

anyway, some advice or insight on how passenger rails work would be appreciated. thanks!

[AusBoy94 42]

as this is my first post ever here, i feel obligated to write a brief CV:

i've been playing simcity for a long time. played SC4 when it first came out and didn't do very well. then picked it up again about a year ago, and had a problem where it kept crashing so i got frustrated and stopped playing (seriously, try playing SC4 for 30 minutes and then having the game crash without saving!) i finally figured out the problem. has to do with multi-threaded processors and is a simple fix. now i'm hooked again.

i'm playing SC4 STOCK. no mods. i have the deluxe version which includes all the patches as well as rush hour.

on to my topic of discussion:

as i grow more experienced in city layout i would like to start adding rail to my cities. in real life i am a very big fan of rail for INTERcity travel. of course i am also a proponent of INTRAcity commuter rail, but that will be a future project.

right now i have three cities that are connected by rail and all three have passenger rail stations. as you could probably guess, i see 0% usage on the info screens for these stations. however in one city i DO have passenger rail traffic on the rail (despite the 0% usage).

i would like to encourage my sims (or make it easier for them) to travel to other cities by rail.

any tips? i have done some reading but i don't see anything that is very helpful.

for instance, does a passenger rail station require a parking garage? or can sims park their cars at the station? (the station is not near the residential sector)

will sims use passenger rail for INTRAcity commuting if it's convenient to them? in a small town it seems more convenient to everyone to use roads for the time being. but as i'm not that good at SC4 (yet), INTRAcity mass transit is something that i will have to eventually figure out if i want my cities to grow. right now i usually level out at the ~100,000pop area.

anyway, some advice or insight on how passenger rails work would be appreciated. thanks!

I would suggest downloading the Network Addon Mod (NAM) Which also fixes a lot of problems with the Sims not using certain network pieces.

[z1 566]

Yes, downloading the NAM is the most important thing to do to increase your rail usage.

As for parking, the Maxis commuter rail stations come with their own parking. However, their capacity is very low. If you use higher capacity rail stations from the STEX (highly recommended), it's good to get some with bus stops included, or put a bus stop nearby (though not right next to them, as Sims can't cross directly from one transit lot to another). You can also use garages (again, not right next to the stations), but they take up a lot more space than bus stops. So a good bus network that includes your rail stations would be very helpful.

[cogeo 960]

Most train stations (incl the ingame ones), do offer parking facilities by default, and this is indicated by the parking areas in the stations (not that simply placing a parking texture gives the station parking functionality, but the ingame station is modded like that, and most custom content creators just copied the ingame station settings, with the most notable exception being the capacity). Furthermore, placing an additional (external) parking garage makes no sense, it doesn't really add parking capacity, as rail stations have a single capacity setting, not separate ones for the parking and the commuter interchange. Usage will be the same, as it will always require two traffic switchings. WIth the in-station garage the switchings will be car->pedestrian (this is what the "parking" does) and then pedestrian->train, while with an external parking garage, it will be car->pedestrian (in the extrernal p.g.) and then pedestrian->pedestrian (exiting the p.g). Then the sim will enter the train station and the switchings will be pedestrian->pedestrian (entering the station) and finally pedestrian->train. That is there will always be two switchings in the rail station (so there is no benefit in terms of capacity/usage either), while the additinal two switchings required to utilize the p.g. make it much less desirable (actually the switching overhead is 0, but cars are faster than pedestrians, and that's why your sims will prefer to enrer the train station with their cars). So you don't need parking garages next to train stations. But you do need them next to other MT station types (bus, subway, elev rail. monorail), to increase their cathment area (these by default do NOT offer parking facilities). But while the "park-and-ride" feature does work at the residential end of the line, it doesn't work at the commercial/industrial end, as rail stations do not offer "taxi" (no matter the taxi automata they spawn around them), neither "rent-a-car" services . You can mod them so that they do, but that's another story. At the commercial/industrial end you can either provide multiple stations, or instead setup a bus-based distribution system (a busstop next to the station and several more close to the workplaces). You can also setup a similar collector system at the residential end, as some sims, esp the R$ ones prefer MT over car, only in this case you may end up with your sims using the bus system instead and snubbing the rail one.

When designing your commuter system keep in mind that sims will almost never elect to travel a network section twice. Eg if the train station is close to the residential area but opposite to the C/I area, they won't drive to the train station to ride the train and move to the opposite direction, they will instead prefer their cars. They may do it for only a few tiles, and only if the MT trip is really faster, but usually they don't.

You say you are using SC4 without mods. but your may be insterested in NAM, as AusBoy94 mentioned, and my (the version is harder to install but offers more options - also check its updates and patches by z1).

@z1, I think parking garages can be placed just next (adjacent) to the MT stations, they only need to be accessed by the same road, or I'm wrong?

SP

RRRRRR

(above R is the road, S the busttop or subway station and P the parking garage)

  Edited July 21, 2012 by cogeo  

[AusBoy94 42]

If you're looking for extra parking, you can try to download some custom train stations, or place a parking garage near the facility.

As for the NAM, to download it. Unzip it, and then run the .exe. It will give you a lot of options, most by default, but be sure to read everything, and it will give you options to change the way Sims commute.

[z1 566]

@z1, I think parking garages can be placed just next (adjacent) to the MT stations, they only need to be accessed by the same road, or I'm wrong?

Well, that's an interesting question. We know that traffic can't flow between two transit lots, but why indeed can it not just use the road connecting them? All the documentation I've seen (such as the Prima guide) says, "Don't put two transit lots next to each other." So I decided to do some tests. I put a garage right next to a subway station, and later a bus station right next to the same subway station, replacing the garage. In both cases, some traffic would leave one station (or the garage), go out to the road, and then enter the other station. (These are all Maxis stations.)

So the documentation is wrong (as is my previous post) - you can put transit stations right next to each other, as long as they're joined by a network. Why does the documentation contradict this? Well, I was using the NAM traffic simulator for my tests. My guess is that the standard Maxis traffic simulator just is not smart enough to do this properly. It tries to move Sims from one station to another, finds that it can't, and gives up. That would be consistent with other behavior of the Maxis traffic simulator - it tends to give up very easily when its first try for a route doesn't work out.

[AusBoy94 42]

^^ This guy needs a medal.