US-style subway?

[aili_mer 43]

Merry Christmas!

So, I've been having a question because SimCity4 is very American, hence relatively easy to make American-type cities for. As such, my question is, how does one make US-style metros?

I know the game abstractizes metros, and so on and so forth, but I do wish to make a semi-realistic city, together with a map like these (https://www.urbanrail.net/am/salt/salt-lake-city.htm, https://www.urbanrail.net/am/nyrk/new-york.htm)

One way to do it, specifically to make it similar to TRAX, would be to just act as if my inner-city rails (if I build them) are former train tracks that were converted to tram usage. But the metros are a bit weirder, because they can take very sharp turns (90 degree turns) and are a bit less eye-pleasing to look at otherwise. I see on a lot of American metros the stations are usually named after the streets (300, 600, 46th, 78th &c) so that also brings a question.

I attempted something in that vein here, but I wish to make a city that is purpose-built for this, but that also sucks out the fun because planning things from the get-go is not as realistic, no city ever appears out of thin air (not modern cities, at least).

So, the end-question is: How does one make US-style subway and urban planning?

Bonus question: How does one do it, while still retaining a sense that you are dealing with a real city and are not an almighty God-Mayor who can build a city layout that will be filled only after 7 generations of Sims have lived and died?

[Propfam 2,288]

For a guy that only makes practical cities: I built it in where traffic necessitate metros and profitable. I did this by concentrating it in certain areas. I don't care the layouting or anything because well the game even doesn't. You can't even have routed transit like in both Skylines. And the labeling tool doesn't work on subway lines. So you can't really beautify subway anyway.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

US metro building had a few phases.

The first phase, which was the late 1800s and early 1900s, was when they took surface running streetcars, and either elevated them or put them underground, in order to make them operate better. The Chicago L is mostly still from this era. It has very sharp turns, and short train cars, and very close station spacing, which is because of its origins as streetcar lines. Also, during this time transit in cities was often built by several competing private transit companies, so the planning is less coherent, and way more messy.

Then there was a period after this when metro had evolved into its own distinctive mode of transit. A lot of the elevated metros from the previous era were replaced with subways or modernized. Some new lines and systems were built, but there wasn't as much transit building activity as there had been in the previous era.

After World War 2 there wasn't very much metro building in the US. There were a few lines here and there and some modernizations, but overall it wasn't a very active period. But in the 70s, the federal government got more involved with transit, and there were several new metro systems built, and they were similar to each other. Most of them are sort of like metro/commuter rail hybrids, where in the center of the city they were tunneled and have normal station spacing, and then outside of it there are multiple branches, and when they leave the city center they run either elevated or at grade (in a dedicated right of way) into the suburbs where they have extremely long station spacing. They're often built next to either existing mainline rail lines, or along existing freeways, because it was cheaper. In the suburbs the stations will have big park and ride parking lots or garages. The Washington DC Metro and BART are the best examples.

And then since then the US has just not built any metro. Some of the existing systems had extensions and that's it. The only new metro system since then has been the Honolulu Skyline which is under construction and partially opened in 2023, and it's very very similar to the 1970s metros. 

 

So my advice, is that if your city's metro was built early, then have close station spacing and a lot of sharp turns. Have multiple lines next to each other, rather than having multiple branches feeding into a shared downtown tunnel. Put the line and stations where the people are, even if it means demolishing buildings.

If your city's metro was built late, then downtown should only have one or two tunneled sections (or elevated if you want) and everything else should be branches from those lines. Outside of the urban core of the city, station spacing should be very long, and very little of it should be tunneled, and stations should have big park and ride lots.

Transit systems in the US have never gotten advanced enough to build orbital lines or crosstown lines. All of your metro lines should radiate from downtown. Assuming Newton-Central is your downtown, the red line wouldn't exist in an American city (although it's a game and it's your city, so it can exist if you want it to).

[aili_mer 43]

Yeah. Originally there was a loop line running on the West side of Newton-West/Amchem, but I then had to demolish it to expand the highway (very realistic). The Red Line appeared more as my attempt to move the downtown West towards the coast, where there was originally an industrial area, so the reasoning is that the old industrial rails were converted, where possible, to passanger usage ala TRAX.

It is definitely getting to the point where I have to use subways liberally because I cannot build anything on the surface without knocking over lots of buildings.