Think tank: MAGLEVs, High Speed Networks and Freight only Rails

[R3V0 909]

Greetings,

I was scratching my head about 2 ideas, maybe they were already discussed, or not, so here they are;

MAGLEV

I am aware that Maglev idea was previously proposed by andreharv, the maker of additional public transit, which he said that he might consider it. I support the idea of having maglevs around two concepts:

1. They will serve very high speed transportation between key parts of the city with very high transportation capacity. We don't need to stick to the reality here, if we're building the city of future (I am certainly in modeling for this concept) and if time is money, then one can assume that maglevs will become one day one of the basic tools of transportation of the future's metropolis.

2. Maglev alone should attract tourist like space elevator. If space elevator could bring (or spawn) tourists to the city, the maglev station should do the same thing.

2bis. Due to the high cost of maintenance and high requirement of electricity, station should be expensive to build and maintain.

Maglev requires certain tools of course;

1. It might serve as train, but on its on separate track, therefore we can assign very high speeds for it. It can be also connected to any station until a proper maglev station comes out. (For the train I volunteer as its modder).

2. Train tracks for maglev of course should look like different, i assume this can be arranged right now thanks to network extensions. The immediate need would be to have modern pillars for elevated train tracks and some decorations along the maglev allocated train tracks.

3. Technically I'd say, we have everything for a maglev. Turning points might be problematic but then again I'd leave that as challenge to builders to create straight lines in their cities.

HIGH SPEED TRAIN NETWORKS AND THE FREIGHT ISSUE

I think the biggest problem right now, I believe, is the fact that both freight and passenger trains are using the same track. Even if you build a second set next to the other, trains simply wont select the new one because "it's less used". The selection is, i believe is based on the closest route between A and B. If we can have a possibility to assign trains to specfic tracks, it might simplify certain things such as:

Creating a railway network with multiple tracks, passing through passenger stations, without the need of separating freight network along the entire line. Adding an additional track for freights would've solved the problem of piling of freight trains around train stations.

It would also allow to create high speed networks.

My biggest issue, so far, is the reason why a user would prefer a specific model of train some other train. The reasons in real life are different than in CS. While high speed trains would offer transport in short time on long distance, trains such as InterRegio, InterCity etc. offer a solution for lines which have high amount of passengers to transport. Simply put, high speed trains travel longer distances in shorter times, while 'slower' trains travel long or short distances which have more train stops, in order to transport more people. Similar concept can be applied on urban trains (FLIRT comes to mind). However, in the game, we simply make choices because we like the looks or its passenger capacity. CS doesn't even care which train carries how many passenger, as long as it covers that A-B the straighest possible, citizens simply select this train.

Therefore, having a proper network, on which we can use different speeds and keep freight separated on specific location would clear up existing network. Using trains (or train models) wouldn't be only a matter of esthetics but a strategic decision, since you will have to decide whether you need a high speed train between point A - B with average citizen amount, or you want to create a peripheral network of regional trains which will carry the mass on multiple stops. Freight trains would use allocated railway network on necessary locations.

What do you think, what are your thoughts about this ? I know that, all of the above is easy on paper and I'm not a modder myself but regardless I'd like to hear what others are thinking on those matters.

My kind regards

 

 

 

[DeltaGamer 13]

I would love Maglev in the game! I don't think it should have a high maintenance cost though, as its unrealistic... maybe make placing the track very expensive

[Ocram's Razr 963]

If you have a track with freight stations but no connections to passenger stations, it will be used exclusively for freight trains and vice versa.

 

Local freight lines (specialized industry to generic industry, generic industry to shopping districts) are most efficient when seperated from each other, from trade, and from passengers.

 

MagLev with standard maintenance, realistic electricity consumption (if the rails cannot consume electricity, then the stations will consume extra to simulate powering the tracks), and higher construction cost sounds like a great idea!

[R3V0 909]

58 minutes ago, OcramsRzr said:

If you have a track with freight stations but no connections to passenger stations, it will be used exclusively for freight trains and vice versa.

 

Local freight lines (specialized industry to generic industry, generic industry to shopping districts) are most efficient when seperated from each other, from trade, and from passengers.

 

MagLev with standard maintenance, realistic electricity consumption (if the rails cannot consume electricity, then the stations will consume extra to simulate powering the tracks), and higher construction cost sounds like a great idea!

Of course. That's what I'm doing mostly.

But if you have 3 industrial areas and 6 cargo stations, commercial zone in the center of the city, this cargo has to pass through passenger stations, metro lines and so on. Also you are doubling train tracks in entire map, which are limited by the game limitations. Having freight specific rails would eliminate that and allow user to make 1 or 2 tracks on some places, then separate lines accordingly when it's needed. 

[sachizm 65]

At the moment i have high speed trains serve as my outside connection trains. I split the line out of the city boundries so by the time they hit map areas they are seperated and all works quite well. I build cities around train networks. Main lines have three sets of track grade seperated. High speed, freight and local.

That being said i would like to be able to choose what model of train comes in from each outside connection. That and a reskin for high speed lines. Then Id have inter-regio's and high speeds running seperate

[owenkduffy 0]

Perhaps this concept could be expanded to actual electrified and non electrified rails. Then if there were a setting for trains to run on electricity or not you could limit the type of train going where. Electrify your intra city passenger lines so th electric passenger units are limited to those. In addition to give more purpose these lines could produce less noise pollution.

[wasmic 111]

While MagLev and conventional High Speed train systems would be incredibly cool, I don't see the purpose of it. The scale of the game is simply too small to warrant it. The Shanghai MagLev has a 30 km stretch and only reaches top speed for a few minutes. Even with the 81 tiles mod, the maps in Skylines are only 18*18 kilometers. It's already possible to do different tiers of rail; simply make a stopping line that only runs some of the way, and then also add a rapid line that has limited stopping as long as it runs where the stopping line also serves, and then stops at all stations afterwards.

Also, there is already a mod for freight-only rails and passenger-only rails. The "Vehicle Restrictions" function in Traffic Manager: President Edition allows the player to disable either freight trains, passenger trains or both from a given section of track.

However, I do think that differentiating between electrified and non-electrified railways sounds like an interesting idea.

[R3V0 909]

3 hours ago, wasmic said:

While MagLev and conventional High Speed train systems would be incredibly cool, I don't see the purpose of it. The scale of the game is simply too small to warrant it. The Shanghai MagLev has a 30 km stretch and only reaches top speed for a few minutes. Even with the 81 tiles mod, the maps in Skylines are only 18*18 kilometers. It's already possible to do different tiers of rail; simply make a stopping line that only runs some of the way, and then also add a rapid line that has limited stopping as long as it runs where the stopping line also serves, and then stops at all stations afterwards.

Also, there is already a mod for freight-only rails and passenger-only rails. The "Vehicle Restrictions" function in Traffic Manager: President Edition allows the player to disable either freight trains, passenger trains or both from a given section of track.

However, I do think that differentiating between electrified and non-electrified railways sounds like an interesting idea.

True, one of the constraints of having a Maglev; map is too small for that. 

That's why I proposed it as high speed transport WITH high capacity. Wouldnt'be good your high wealth cims use maglev between their homes and offices ? And these maglevs transport 1k passengers at once, unlike trains. I'm proposing long maglev cars, which most of the train stations are struggling with. So my idea of maglev is: 

To transport high level citizens between home - office or downtown - airport etc. you name it, with very high passenger capacity, in a very short time. There's also the generation of tourists, like space elevator. 

 

[wasmic 111]

Eh, 1k passengers in a train is too much for me to use it. When it comes to normal trains, the commuter/metro trains with greatest capacity have room for about 1400 people, sitting and standing - and those trains are already very long. Add onto this that the population levels in C:SL are already too low, and the vehicles should also have a reduced capacity. The convention seems to be to cut the passenger capacity to about 1/2 of the real number. Buses only have room for 30 even though they seem like they could carry 60, metros only have room for 180 passengers etc. So a real life train with room for 1400 passengers (which would be too long for the stations in the game) would only have room for 700 in the game.

It just wouldn't make sense to have a MagLev with a thousand passengers on board. In general, MagLevs don't make sense for use in an urban context, when normal trains can do it equally fast and quite a bit cheaper. To me, your suggestion seems pretty overpowered and not very realistic, or completely undesirable due to being beaten in every way by  normal rail (except for attracting tourists), depending on how it would be implemented.

The only role that MagLev could be used for in C:S with some degree of realism would be for connecting distant cities (if you, for example, build two cities on one map) or for airport connections... but even then, when the distances are as short as they are, it is just more realistic to use a normal train.