At what pop. should I wait until making a subway line?

[BossDragon 220]

The city I'm working on is currently sitting at 135k at the time I'm posting this.

 

Should I put a subway or wait?

[jlt122 46]

If you want a denser population and want your sims to get around much more easily, you can put them down at anytime. Given as long as your budget can handle it. I sometimes put some down at the birth of my city other times I just wait. Totally up to you really when you get right down to it.

[Prophet42 1,503]

The next question is how much do you have in the bank, and how much do you make per sim month?  Subways are expensive to lay down, and expensive to maintain.  Like jlt122 stated, it is more a matter of budget, rather than population.

[piercing_arrow 76]

I always use subways as a last resort; I would rather develop rails, mag-levs, and el-trains before subways.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Would be nice if we had mag-levs that didn't replace something else.

 

Subways come in handy when you can afford them as congestion relief.  I generally lay them down under avenues when things are getting dense.  I have one avenue that was so busy it took a dual subway system to calm it down.  The tubes are parallel and joined at every station.

 

The big issue with subways is cost.

 

Have a care with overdoing subways, however.  If you get too many of them you won't be able to save the city.  There is a bug that will wreck things if you go too far.

 

Generally speaking I use the full light-rail (default only) system and bring my subway to the surface as elevated rail for hops across open country.  Cheaper.  In crossing situations where light-rail can't cross something, a dive into the subway is handy as well.  I know there are GLR links, but I don't find much advantage to it since I am not emulating a real city.  If you examine my signature block, you will see an early GLR as part of the animation.  I just don't need it currently.

 

If I was doing the Toronto Transit system, I would indeed use GLR for some segments of the subway where there are sections of uncovered cuts, for example at the Ellis Portal and the stations north of Bloor on Yonge.  Duplicating the Davisville yard could be a real challenge.  And the Scarborough extension includes elevated rail as well.

[piercing_arrow 76]

If it would be available, a rail-to-elevated rail or subway-to-rail exchange would be nice...

[cartracer5 3]

They are:

 

Rail to Elevated Rail: 

 

Rail to subway: 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Bear in mind that in the real world, it is unusual for heavy rail to run on light rail tracks but not the converse.  The light roadbeds may well collapse.  Not a problem with SC4 because this was never anticipated.

[mutton noir 170]

I've begun by planning out my city on paper, often basing it on some of the excellent city maps and urban planning concept layouts/architectural models available in Google images. I've found it much easier to lay down subway systems at the start along with the rest of my transport system- it can be really fiddly and a major headache trying to retro-fit once the city is established- I always place a subway station next to a bus stop and always at rail stations and close to schools/hospitals to ensure an integrated transport system. It seems to work best. Zoning minimum number of residential/commercial/industrial areas to ensure a profit, I let the city 'play' for a while to build up sufficient funds to then continue with further development. I usually leave water to the last. You could lay down a  subway route at the  city centre that can be extended outwards to suburbs and industrial parks as demand increases and these are built- a more organic growth that is also easier to manage. Subway and Bus routes established early do help the city to grow at a healthy pace by allowing Sims ample options to travel to and from work. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I generally use subways as a solution to congestion.  I put them in when my traffic display indicates things are getting out of hand, usually along avenues.

 

I am a user of the Network Addon Mod, and I strongly recommend it to fix the  very broken traffic system.  As a MAC user you will need version 32.1 which has an automatic installer.

 

FYI, I am a Linux user.

[Terring 6,476]

Since I use money mods, I can build subways even right in the beginning of the game. In fact, I have even constructed small villages connected by subways, reducing the need of roads! So my answer is very simple. If you can afford subways, build them anytime you wish.

[monkeywater 910]

I like making long streets out of pedmall tiles (3 wide), placing subway stops down the middle every so often, and a line under.  Makes a great walking area for commercial use. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

That's a good idea.  Have you considered running two OWR's in opposite directions along the sides of this?  Could give you a very nice divided avenue.

[monkeywater 910]

That's a good idea.  Have you considered running two OWR's in opposite directions along the sides of this?  Could give you a very nice divided avenue.

 

What is an OWR?

 

edit:  $%&^! me, its one way road, oops. 

 

 

That could be cool, but could the sims cross the road?  Or would I need to make pedestrian overpasses everywhere?  I never could get the ped overpasses working. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

They have to be stapled to the chicken (j/k).  Of course they can cross, the same as any road in Montreal.