SimCity 4 and Railroads

[MrFun]

I'm pretty much frustrated in getting train stations and railroads to work in SimCity 4 - both, freight stations for industry and passenger stations.

No matter how long they have been built alongside railroads, they always have zero usage.

How do you place train stations so that they work properly? The front-facing arrow for example when you select to build a station - does the front-facing part have to be connected to a road or a railroad? Does it matter which side of the station you run the railroad by?

Thanks for any help from fellow SimCity 4 players.

[Seedle]

IIRC, the arrow does need to be towards the (automobile)road, but it does not matter how the railroad touches. But yes, it is difficult to get ridership on railroads, especially freight. Some tips, but I'm hardly a SimCity4 master:

Keep your stations far apart, or in separate cities. People like to ride long distances, they'll drive or bus shorter ones.

Have Bus Stations next to all passenger rail stations, and make sure bus stations serve as many buildings as possible through out your city. It sounds counter intuitive, since you'd think that if you busses go everywhere, people would just ride them. But what actually happens is they ride the bus, instead of driving, to the station, then ride the bus to from the station to work. People will generally only walk 5 tiles or so from mass transit to destination, so to get people on trains, you must either spam train stations, or provide bus transport.

For Freight stations, they won't be used near the edge of the city, the simulation will always just use the roads to get them off the landform as quickly as possible. Even in the center, it's hard to get high usage on them. The key thing is to make it easier to get goods to the station than to anywhere else. Also, industry buildings directly next to a railroad will use it automatically, no need for a freight station. If you have a railroad running through your industrial zones, they may will be shipping by train, but your station won't be used because it is superfluous.

Hope this helps a little.

[DRoseDARs]

Simtropolis is the bestest place for SimCity 4.

[EPW]

Do you have rush hour? I think there is a mod that fixes this problem.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Seedle
IIRC, the arrow does need to be towards the (automobile)road, but it does not matter how the railroad touches. But yes, it is difficult to get ridership on railroads, especially freight. Some tips, but I'm hardly a SimCity4 master:

Keep your stations far apart, or in separate cities. People like to ride long distances, they'll drive or bus shorter ones.

Have Bus Stations next to all passenger rail stations, and make sure bus stations serve as many buildings as possible through out your city. It sounds counter intuitive, since you'd think that if you busses go everywhere, people would just ride them. But what actually happens is they ride the bus, instead of driving, to the station, then ride the bus to from the station to work. People will generally only walk 5 tiles or so from mass transit to destination, so to get people on trains, you must either spam train stations, or provide bus transport.

For Freight stations, they won't be used near the edge of the city, the simulation will always just use the roads to get them off the landform as quickly as possible. Even in the center, it's hard to get high usage on them. The key thing is to make it easier to get goods to the station than to anywhere else. Also, industry buildings directly next to a railroad will use it automatically, no need for a freight station. If you have a railroad running through your industrial zones, they may will be shipping by train, but your station won't be used because it is superfluous.

Hope this helps a little.

Okay. Your points make sense.

As for freight train stations being superfluous, this means that when I query on one and it says zero of its capacity is being used, that the industries are still using it anyway?

[MrFun]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
Simtropolis is the bestest place for SimCity 4.

ah

[Seedle]

Originally posted by MrFun


Okay. Your points make sense.

As for freight train stations being superfluous, this means that when I query on one and it says zero of its capacity is being used, that the industries are still using it anyway?

No, if the station is being used, it will display as such in the query. However, it is possible for industry to use the railroad without using the station. But to be clear, only buildings (not zones, but the individual buildings that pop up on zones) that touch the railroad on a side will use it without a station. For instance, if you have a 3x5 tile industrial zone, with roads on all sides except the top, which is railroad. A 3x3 building on the left end of the zone will use the railroad, as will the 2x2 building in the top-right corner. But the two little 1 tile shops in the bottom-right will not have railroad access.

About the only time a freight station is useful is if you query a road route not on the edge of your city and it says it has a lot of freight trucks using it. In that situation, a freight station either at the point of highest truck density, or on some major tributaries to the route you queried, may help.

[Joseph]

Bus station and Parking Garages must be across the street from the station. Do not place them next to a train station.

Bus station/parking garages
-----------------------------
Street/road
--------------------------------
Train station

[DaShi]

The last time I played I made a city that was like a big donut with forests in the middle. Around the forests ran raised-rails that connected to subways deeper into the city. It got a fair amount of traffic, and I enjoyed watching the little trains go around.

[FrostyBoy]

Why are you bothering with this rubbish?

Just wait for the new one, CitiesXL. It'll be worth it.