Where to build a Train Station

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Hey,

I'm currently working on a new city and am looking to make a suburban rail network for the northern half of my city, as shown here. As you can see it's quite hilly, and I am having some trouble on where to place the main station. Can you guys help, maybe also with a suitable station?

Kind regards.

[nycsc4 5,250]

I would recommend just searching the STEX for the word "station" and take your pick. There are tons of them.

The terminal station for my rail network is in the Downtown area. Generally these rail networks are used to transport large amounts of people from outside communities and suburbs to the central core for work. Therefore a suburban railway should have it's terminal station where the largest concentration of jobs are, usually a Downtown area.

For the slopes, you can flatten them out or get the elevated viaduct pieces in the NAM.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Depends on whether you are using heavy or light rail. For heavy rail, I would simply choose a central location. May mean some urban renewal. Light rail can come in as subway with RTMT stations.

[TekindusT 3,809]

You first need to ask yourself what kind of main station you want to have there: a terminus station (like London's Charing Cross or King's Cross) or a main station where trains can pass by (like Amsterdam Central or Lisbon Estaçao da Luz, all the stations are available in the STEX). This will determine the shape and functionality of your suburban rail network.

In my very personal opinion, after watching your city, I think a terminus-like station would fit more. All commuters from the suburbs who want to commute to your downtown will pass through your terminus station and you'll see lots of traffic there.

Building railroads on bumpy terrain is always complicated, however. I'd go for a rail-on-trench approach in your case. All your rail network would have the same height and there are several trench stations in the exchanges suitable for the job. Otherwise, if you're using a too restrictive slope mod, you might do some workarounds or; if you have no slope mod at all, results wouldn't be as realistic as you would like.

[Neinhalt 1]

I don't have anything constructive to say about where to build a train station as I am but a beginner myself; however, I wanted to comment on your excellent design, lots of little details there that you figured out how to bring them out and be clever, nice stuff.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

You first need to ask yourself what kind of main station you want to have there: a terminus station (like London's Charing Cross or King's Cross) or a main station where trains can pass by (like Amsterdam Central or Lisbon Estaçao da Luz, all the stations are available in the STEX). This will determine the shape and functionality of your suburban rail network.

In my very personal opinion, after watching your city, I think a terminus-like station would fit more. All commuters from the suburbs who want to commute to your downtown will pass through your terminus station and you'll see lots of traffic there.

Building railroads on bumpy terrain is always complicated, however. I'd go for a rail-on-trench approach in your case. All your rail network would have the same height and there are several trench stations in the exchanges suitable for the job. Otherwise, if you're using a too restrictive slope mod, you might do some workarounds or; if you have no slope mod at all, results wouldn't be as realistic as you would like.

I think I have decided on that. I'll use a terminal station and fan the tracks northward.

Now I have a question: Where can I find a Viaduct rail terminal station? I think this will fit well. I've tried the STEX but nothing much is satisfactory.

[MandelSoft 2,769]

Instead of putting the rail into a trench, you can also do the other way around: Elevate the whole terminus station and connect it with rail viaducts to the higher ground...

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Instead of putting the rail into a trench, you can also do the other way around: Elevate the whole terminus station and connect it with rail viaducts to the higher ground...

Do you know of any elevated terminals Maarten? Or will I just have to use some terrain lots and raise the station on an embankment?

[MandelSoft 2,769]

The latter one: raise the station up on an embankment.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Thanks for the help everyone.

In my head, I am thinking to place a terminal station with lines radiating north from it, however as there is more city to the south, I may also run an underground subway (probably converting the heavy rail to subway) through the downtown and to the southern parts of the town, possibly converting it back to heavy rail.

Might experiment with this idea tomorrow and see what's feasible.

Although, does anyone have any ideas on integrating the embankment station with the city more?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I haven't looked for this, but there should be a large station with a subway platform included. I have one like this for monorail.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

I haven't looked for this, but there should be a large station with a subway platform included. I have one like this for monorail.

Do you have a picture? This sounds intriguing.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I haven't looked for this, but there should be a large station with a subway platform included. I have one like this for monorail.

Do you have a picture? This sounds intriguing.

Better yet, here's the

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

I haven't looked for this, but there should be a large station with a subway platform included. I have one like this for monorail.

Do you have a picture? This sounds intriguing.

Better yet, here's the

Thankyou Nonny, not quite what I had in mind but it looks great. I'll probably use it somewhere else.

So I did a bit of playing around and browsing, and ended up combining Simcitler's relot of Ill Tonkso's Birmingsfield Station with a open air subway lot by Frogface. I took MandelSoft's advice and placed it on an embankment extending into the city and TekindusT's recommendation of a terminal, along with my desire to have a through line through this awkward terrain.

Opinions?

[cogeo 960]

The large terminal rail station is correctly placed at the edge of this CBD. However it won't be serving those tall skyscrappers, only the few small buildings around it. Why? Because sims won't walk that far, and rail stations typically (unless specifically modded) don't provide some sort of "taxi" or "rent-a-car" service either, ie rail->car or pedestrian->car traffic conversions (train stations typically provide parking, ie car->pedestrian conversion, which works in residential areas, aka park-and-ride). To serve all this CBD, you need some dispatching mechanism. Setup a local bus and/or subway network. RTMT allows you to build bus and subway stations on top of roads and streets, without having to bulldoze anything or reserve space in advance. Put one (or better yet two or more, if needed) bus and/or subway stations at the roads(s) around your rail station, and some more ones close to the destinations, about 6-8 tiles apart; for the diagonal sections there are usually small 1x1 empty tiles available, so you can build non-roadtop stations there. It might be good to put some bus/subway stations at the ferry terminals too.

As for the rail lines and the terrain, you can build tunnels. There are some slope-mods on the STEX, but you should better take one and modify it as needed. I have made my own "base" slope mod and then I make variations, eg with some more or less steep grade allowed for rail lines, to match every specific need. The parameters you are mostly interested in are Slope along network and Max Tunnel Slope (and another one specifying the min height difference to build tunnel entrance - can't remember the name exactly). Experiment with these settings, and don't save your city (exit to region without saving) until you are satisfied with the result.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Yep, that's what the subway connection is for!

Also I am familiar with RTMT and am planning to put some subway stations around.

I think converting rail to subway and making them into tunnels should be fine.

[Don Bananos 28]

I haven't looked for this, but there should be a large station with a subway platform included. I have one like this for monorail.

Do you have a picture? This sounds intriguing.

Better yet, here's the

Thankyou Nonny, not quite what I had in mind but it looks great. I'll probably use it somewhere else.

So I did a bit of playing around and browsing, and ended up combining Simcitler's relot of Ill Tonkso's Birmingsfield Station with a open air subway lot by Frogface. I took MandelSoft's advice and placed it on an embankment extending into the city and TekindusT's recommendation of a terminal, along with my desire to have a through line through this awkward terrain.

Opinions?

Stunning... The finished part that is

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Good job of research. Looks great.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Thanks for the feedback guys

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Just going to bump this thread with a transit design.

I've done a bit of research about real life designs and in my home town, all metro lines run to the central terminal via a rail loop, and run back. This gives a through-running layout and higher capacity.

As I would prefer for my city to have a realistic design, I figured this design could work well in my city as well, serving not only the terminus but also four underground stations placed not too far apart.

To clarify, trains from the bottom, left and top right corners run as a balloon loop through the subway.The top track simply terminates at the northern-most station of the loop (which is the central station).