Is there any reason NOT to use the "public player" to build railroads and roads?

[Antonin]

Ever since I started playing Simutrans I switch to the public player when I want to build a railroad or a long road. But I always feel guilty about this, because eventually the public player is very deep in the red. I would not feel so guilty if Simutrans had an option for the human player to pay a small tax, so the public player would make some money, but it doesn't.

Do most of you use the public player the same way I do? Is there any reason for the player to use his or her own money to build railroad tracks?

[Matthew]

Because you want to simulate a real economy.

I often run several companies, and roleplay them competing against each other.

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

I usually play with -freeplay on, so I freely use the public player.

When I (very rarely) have played without -freeplay, I still use the public player to do public projects. For example, I may set the intercity road connection length smaller and use public player to manually build up not only highways but also freeways - public-use roads.

Building things that are naturally public seems fine to me. Roads are fine, generally those are public. Rails are generally private, so I would build those with your company. And short roads from existing roads to factories I'd build because those are also private.

But however you play is however you play. Nobody is going to be hurt or injured by however you play. The rules you use should make sense to you.

[Octavius]

Rails are generally private, so I would build those with your company.

I understand that rails in the US are generally private and in the UK this was originally the case too, but on mainland Europe rails have been generally public from the very start. Or semi-public, organised as a private company with governments (often regional) as main shareholder.

[INJMVO]

The "easy" answer would be: "No there is no reason not to use the public player" except you need to know which buttons to press (in the government or ingame),
And if you "abuse" the power you may feel the guilt afterwards
I think it will be to big of a expansion to try to code in "taxes" at the moment as it will break many
company's in games (like the online multiplayer maps) that are just breaking even at the moment

[Flemmbrav]

In pak192.comic there are tolls preset, depending on the vehicle and the track.
There are quite a lot of situations where it's economical to have your own railroads.