Dead Transportation System

[Ziggomatic 0]

I have a largish city (pop. 275K) in which the transportation system just died. I mean completely dead; everything but cars & freight is shut down. When I query a station, it reads: Capacity Used: 0% Monthly Maintanence Costs: [bLANK] Actual Usage: [bLANK] Max. Capacity: [bLANK] Global Funding: 100% I'm running the latest versions of NAM, NWM, RHW. Interestingly, around the same time the education level basically collapsed, dropping 100 points without an obvious cause. The education level seems to be recovering, but not so with the transportation system. Any thoughts? I can't figure this out for the life of me. Thanks, A $%&^!.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

It's impossible to say more without additional information, but the general pattern sounds like the consequence of a conflict or of a cheat lot with too radical values.

 

Do you remember doing anything particular you did around the time the problem occurred? NAM upgrade? Other traffic mod? Any new or altered functional mod (not regular RCI buildings, but stuff that influences game mechanics)? Are you using any radical cheat lots?

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

Yes, more information would be helpful, otherwise we'd just be guessing. Could you please answer the following questions:

• When did you first notice this issue?
• As T Wrecks said, have you recently installed any simulation-altering mods?
• Does it reoccur in a completely new city / region?
• What are the service quality ratings of the stations? (the icons on the query)
• Do these ratings vary for each station, or are they the same?

[smf_16 1,838]

I also had this problem once. The only reason I could think of at that time was a Japanese train station that I plopped, although I still use the station in other cities and it isn't causing any troubles at all, so I don't think that was the issue. Luckily, I had made a backup from my city only an hour or so ago, so as I couldn't solve it, I just imported my backup city.
Conclusion: since I had this issue, I always backup my cities at least one time a day when I play.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

A screen shot with the "drawpaths" facility turned on would probably help a lot.

[Ziggomatic 0]

Thanks guys. I'm not on my Simcity machine, so I can't post screenshots at the moment, but let me answer the questions I can.

 

 

The last mod I installed was the NWM, but I think I was using it for a few days before the problem happened.

The problem started a couple days ago, and like I mentioned in the original post, it seemed to happen around the same time as a major collapse in education level (from around 170 to below 60). I doubt that the education collapse is related to my transportation problem, but I can’t rule it out. Ironically, around the time of the education collapse I had invested a large budget surplus in a bunch of new schools (elementary, HS, and college). I had also relocated my convention center much closer to my airport. Again, I doubt the convention center relocation has anything to do with all this, but the education collapse happened right when I plopped the new convention center, so… yeah.

To answer a few more questions:

• Transit stations in other cities are working fine.
• The service quality icons are completely empty for every station (passenger rail, elevated rail, subway, bus stops, you name it). Freight rail is still running. I haven't checked every station, but I've checked enough that I'm confident saying this problem is across the board.

I tried re-installing NAM, and now my city shows up as a blank tile within my region, though it still works fine once I load it. Maybe I'm just in over my head. 

 

Thanks again.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

The only thing I can think of is some problem with the Convention Centre, but I have never moved or deleted one.  Has anyone had a problem with this reward lot?

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

Since the other cities are not affected, I think we can rule out simulation mods as being the cause. These would have a universal effect on all cities.

 

The Convention Centre is an interesting one. Although it benefits commercial desirability, it's also increases crime and hinders residential desirability. Crime is known to reduce the EQ boost that schools provide to Sims. With these two factors, there is the potential for education levels to be affected. If Sims move out of certain neighbourhoods, less will go to school there, hence affecting the quality of education. The strange thing is, the radius of the effects are less than the coverage of a small fire station, which would be insignificant on a city-wide scale. This has got me thinking, since you've bulldozed and re-located the Convention Centre, maybe the negative effects of the old building are still 'lingering around'. Not sure if this is possible, but it's worth a thought.

 

It might be worth passing the Commuter Shuttle Service ordinance, if you haven't already done so. This increases the probability that Sims will use public transport by 5%. But maybe time will be the best remedy here. I've found that problems with the simulation can sometimes be solved by activating cheetah speed for short periods.

[Ziggomatic 0]

Okay, update:

 

Still not sure what caused the transportation problem, but at least I've discovered an in-game solution. After about a decade I checked my traffic adviser (which I normally have turned off) and noticed an admonishment for having only one transit station, so I plopped a random subway station (hadn't tried that yet), and it worked. I traced the traffic back to a lone working subway station. It seems I can get my stations back working by simply replacing them. It's going to be annoying to demolish and replace each station, but at least they'll work again.

 

Removing the Convention Center and passing the Commuter Shuttle Service ordinance didn't seem to have any effect, and my education level has returned to above 160... Still stumped, and curious. Any ideas what caused this?