trains

[bite 0]

how do you get a train to start in your city

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

You need two passenger stations connected by rail if you want passenger trains.  (The stations should go from residential zones to an area with jobs)

 

For freight train traffic, you need a freight train station in an industrial zone and a rail line going to the city's edge with a neighbor connection.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Yep, and if you want to use passenger rail for commuting, you need lots of stations in the residential area, which means lots of track.  Both are cheap, but take up considerable real estate.  At the jobs end, you either need several passenger stations or a bus system to take people from the stations to their jobs.

 

Make sure the stations face a road/street, and touch the tracks.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

Actually, not all freight needs a freight terminal. Industry along a track (within about 3 squares) has direct access. I don't know if that usage will generate visible trains, but the freight will move to either a seaport or sector edge if connected. PEG has a rail-enabled seaport mod.

 

Freight terminals are tricky; search the forums. It seems that you need to carefully bottle-neck your access road(s) so that the only way in or out forces freight trucks to pass by the rail freight station. If there's any other route, then freight trucks will use (and clog) it.

 

For passengers, I recommend placing a bus stop near (or in!) each passenger train station and then scattering bus stops throughout your residential areas. There's a mod that allows you to place a bus stop on top of a road or avenue without occupying any additional real estate. There are also mods that combine rail and bus into a single station.

 

Caveat: Sims can fall in love with buses, riding them all over the map (region), so bottle-necking is again in order.

 

A word on bottle-necking: The real world has grids that allow intelligent humans to choose ideal paths. Sims are neither intelligent nor human. They need to be funneled through intelligent transfer points by tyrannical mayors like you. Therefore, Simcity rewards road-maps that look less like grids and more like the veins of a leaf (with main stems tapped by freeways and rail).

[Prophet42 1,500]

It also helps if you run the rail lines to neighboring cities and then put passenger train stations in those cities.  Sims like to use the trains for longer commutes.  Also, for the actual train automata to appear, I believe there has to be a certain amount of usage on the rail.

[bite 0]

thank all for the help    bite

[JJogurt 18]

Think of railways as mass transit versions of highways. Just like highways they are meant to transport sims over large distances and across to other cities.

However they have many advantages over highways. They take up less space and are much cheaper. A highway tile cost 1,00$ per month, while a rail tile costs only 0,03$. That is less than even a street! Additionally, good rail usage will provide you with income from fares which can make the whole system pay for itself.

For these reasons railways can be used early on without too much impact on your finances. Usually my first connection to other cites is by rail, not road.