How do you decide when to add more buses to a bus route?

[V813]

Hello! How do you decide when to add more buses to a bus route?

I'm running a small, simple savegame with small towns and few bus routes. I usually add one or two buses to a route when it is over 90% loaded. Yet I don't know if it is a good method. Some of my buses even suffer a loss.

[jamespetts]

If your 'busses are suffering a loss, then you probably have too many.

[jellyman]

I usually wait until I get a crowded message before I add extra buses.  When I get crowded messages I look at travelled and free capacity, and if free capacity is close to travelled or higher I add buss stop capacity.  If free capacity is lower or I've already tried adding bus stop capacity I add extra busses.  I don't worry too much if individual busses on a busy route suffer losses as they can cluster up and the last one in the cluster gets very few passengers.  I run bus routes from one train station per city, with each bus route having roughly 4 or 5 stops.

If you are running bus routes with only two stations, its probably good to add buses when the route is over 90% loaded, however watch for uneven loading in bigger networks.  For instance if you are linked to train stations where a couple trains from longer distance might add a couple thousand passengers to keep your bus routes busy for a while before there is a gap with no passengers until the next train or three arrives.

[micslu]

It seems majority of my Simutrans hours are spent fiddling local bus routes 
Here is my standard strategy (Pak128):

For my Intra-city bus lines, Main passenger rail station serves as bus terminal.

Type 1 route: T (terminal) - stops A - B - C - D - E - D - C - B - A - T.
Start with smaller bus, replace with larger capacity bus then either
(a) get 2nd bus, time it so one is around E when the other enters T. (But traffic will usually disrupt precise coordination.)
(b) divide into 2 or more routes: T - A - B - C return and T - D - E return.
(c) if still crowded add 2nd or 3rd buses to (b). (Depending on overcrowding, usually due to ignoring the situation while working on other locations)

Type 2 route: LOOP line: T - A - B - C - D - E - T - E - D - C - B - A - T.
This type of route is often very effective, picking up Terminal bound passengers from the first stop if there is room.
When the first bus becomes crowded regularly, the 2nd is added to coordinate with the 1st but in reverse - 1st bus at 1st T, 2nd bus at 2nd (middle) T.
Depending on overcrowding, sometimes 3rd or more buses or dividing the line is necessary (eg T-A-B-C-T-C-B-A-T and T-D-E-T-E-D-T).

As the city grows, there are other options:
TRAM - they are unaffected by road traffic so can be much faster to destinations and back. Another bonus: Trams can share bus stops, so they can
be set to wait for whatever percentage loading, while buses can keep on entering/leaving the same stop.

BRANCH RAIL LINE - as the city grows larger, build local branch lines from the main intercity rail station to the farther parts of the city and running buses
from those stations as above.
I guess now we can start considering underground metros too. (I don't know if I will start going underground yet).

Hope some of this helps.

[Combuijs]

I usually add the number of passengers waiting at the stops (and travelling by that line of course). If it's more than twice the capacity, I double the number of busses on the line (or alternatively upgrade to busses with higher speed or capacity). Once I have 4 busses on a line in city traffic, I split it in four seperate lines. Once I have 8 busses on a line connecting two cities I replace them by trains.

[dannyman]

I check the graph at stations along the route.  If there are more UNHAPPY in the graph, then there are capacity or other issues with the route.

I also tend to look at the Lines window, with:
- traveled
- free capacity
- profit

If it looks like this:
Free Capacity
Traveled
Profit

Then I'm not keen to add vehicles.

If it looks like:
Profit
Traveled
Free Capacity

Then there's a case for adding vehicles.

-d