Allow some vehicles to skip stations on a line

[Isaac_Clarke]

Hello the community,


I think I have a little idea for an improvement about lines management.
Here is an exemple of a simple line:


Station A ---> Station B ---> Station C


Stations A and C have a lot of passengers to carry and the Station B is small and have only a few passengers to carry. 3 trains belong to the line.
2 trains will stop in each stations (A,B,C)
The last train will skip the Station B because there's already no passengers to carry, it is more profitable to directly join the Station C.


If you understand me (english is not my mother tongue), do you think  it could be possible to set this option on a train of the line to skip somes stations?
You'll say me that I can create an another line for this train but for a better readability and to better understand the profit of a "track line", it could be more interesting to keep this train to the same line.


What do you think?


Friendly, Isaac Clarke

[Yona-TYT]

that him seems a timeout of 3 seconds at station B

[Ters]

As you predict, I say create a separate line. It could perhaps be a more interesting and flexible feature to be able to see the combined finances of multiple lines.

[Sarlock]

You could set up an Express service to connect A and C on the same line.  You would have to create sidings for the slower local train to pull aside so that the faster express train can pass the slower train and continue the direct service.  There are lots of ways to do this but one of my favorite is to use a section of slower track on the siding and have the local train's schedule use that as its route.  When it pulls in there it slows down and if timed right the express train will zip by on the faster track and trip the next block signal before the local one does and thus get ahead of the local train.  I'm sure other people have designed more elegant solutions.
It's similar to how it is done in a real world example except that scheduling allow the exact place/time to be chosen for when the express line passes the local line.

[Ters]

I think there's confusion about what is meant by "line" here. A physical track (or pair of track), or a service.

[Sarlock]

Ah, I see... wanting to select an individual train on a line to skip B but not the other trains on the same line service.  Seems easier to set up a second express line?

[Isaac_Clarke]

Ah, I see... wanting to select an individual train on a line to skip B but not the other trains on the same line service.  Seems easier to set up a second express line?

Yes that's what I mean
That's what happens in certains train lines in France for example. A train link the city A and the city B with ten stations between them. All the trains belong to the same line (A -> B). Sometimes a train will stop in every stations between the 2 cities but it's possible to take a train which link directly the 2 cities without stoping on the intermediate stations.

[Ters]

Although such services might share a page in the time tables, they are somewhat distinct schedules. I think it is best for Simutrans to keep the schedules distinct, and also the lines, both in terms of changes to the code, compatibility and UI, but maybe introduce something above lines. Then you can have a line called "A-B" and "A-B express", which can be grouped into something (maybe call it service) called "A-B". It is nice to have the "A-B express" visible as a distinctly named thing many places, such in the list of which line serves a stop, and to be able to see which vehicles belong to the express part, and which don't. It is also nice to be able to see statistics both individually and summed up, in order to tell whether a express/non-express distinction was worth it.

[Isaac_Clarke]

Although such services might share a page in the time tables, they are somewhat distinct schedules. I think it is best for Simutrans to keep the schedules distinct, and also the lines, both in terms of changes to the code, compatibility and UI, but maybe introduce something above lines. Then you can have a line called "A-B" and "A-B express", which can be grouped into something (maybe call it service) called "A-B". It is nice to have the "A-B express" visible as a distinctly named thing many places, such in the list of which line serves a stop, and to be able to see which vehicles belong to the express part, and which don't. It is also nice to be able to see statistics both individually and summed up, in order to tell whether a express/non-express distinction was worth it.

For sure it could be a solution and I think more simple to programm