Multi-functional Stations

[Anton]

I'm trying to build a train stop where I can load bulk goods, passengers, and mail onto one train. It's not working. What's the minimum I need to build for that? So far I have simple platforms and village station building, but I'm not getting any passengers or mail waiting at the station at all!

And what's the minimum I need to build at the far end to unload the passengers and mail? Will only simple platforms suffice?

Thanks, appreciated.

[An_dz]

Check if the station let passenger/mail/goods load, some stations are passenger specific, while others are goods specific, and some let use all of them.
Check if your train have the wagons to transport those stuff, again there are wagons that just transport passengers, mail or good. There's no wagon that can transport more than one type.

If you build a station like: PPGGG
Where P is a tile with a passenger/mail station and G is a tile with Goods station.
The wagons need to be exactly over the station they can load/unload. This means the passenger wagons need to stay in front of the train where they stay over the P tiles. And the goods wagons need to stay over the G tiles.

[ch3shirecat]

Where P is a tile with a passenger/mail station

The only building option in the train menu which has both a passenger and a mail icon is Village Station Building and the game doesn't allow me to put it on the actual track.

I'm using pak128 if it's matters.

[An_dz]

All passenger stations load mail, if it doesn't then build that extension building on the side of the station.
Or, if you use a truck to get the mail inside the city to deliver to the rail station, you can build a mail stop attached to the station.

[Ters]

The wagons need to be exactly over the station they can load/unload. This means the passenger wagons need to stay in front of the train where they stay over the P tiles. And the goods wagons need to stay over the G tiles.

I have never experienced this restriction. In fact, I have fully functional lines relying on it not being true. If a station is passenger enabled, it is passenger enabled everywhere. Same with mail and goods. That mail can be enabled by building an extension building kind of proves this, as no mail wagon can stop there and no other tile is an M tile. Unless there is some strange pak specific behaviour that treats mail differently.

[ch3shirecat]

The plot thickens...

P.S. According to An_dz, I should both put Village Station Building and a passenger Station in my station to simply be able to load passengers and mail on my train. Isn't it a bit much?

But if I put only Village Station Building, no passenger, or mail, arrive to my station (it looks like they should, because the entry in the station detail is there but it keeps showing me 0), and if I put only a passenger Station, then no mail arrives.

[An_dz]

I have never experienced this restriction.

Seriously? I thought so, I had this problem some versions ago. Or maybe it was another thing. Anyway I think it should be this way, or you could use one tile  for passenger and all the rest one for goods that are cheaper.

I should both put Village Station Building and a passenger Station in my station to simply be able to load passengers and mail on my train. Isn't it a bit much?

But if I put only Village Station Building, no passenger, or mail, arrive to my station (it looks like they should, because the entry in the station detail is there but it keeps showing me 0), and if I put only a passenger Station, then no mail arrives.

Yes, it's like real life, you can't store mail in a place that don't store mail. So you need to build a place to do so.
If you build only the Village Building, it's just the building there's no station where the train should stop.
pak96comic have passengers, goods, passenger/mail and passenger/mail/good stations.

[VS]

Anton, it would help if you could tell us:
1) What is the version of game - Standard, or Experimental, and maybe also version number (although in this particular case not so important)?
2) What pakset do you use, and what is the year when you are experiencing this problem?

It could be something else than incompatibility of stations

Anyway, it is really simple:
a) There are three types of cargo: passengers, mail and everything else.
b) A station can handle any of these three types only if it has at least one part that enables that.
c) Loading and unloading are treated as equal.

I'm attaching an overview for pak128 railways. You can see the little icons for people, mail, and cargo... This will always say what the building enables. I think most paksets have this in some form.

[ch3shirecat]

So, if my station is ENABLED to handle passengers and mail with any of the extension buildings in that picture, then does it mean that passenger AND mail can be loaded using ANY of the platforms shown?

And, yes, I'm using 128 running on a standard build (latest version).

- Anton

[sdog]

So, if my station is ENABLED to handle passengers and mail with any of the extension buildings in that picture, then does it mean that passenger AND mail can be loaded using ANY of the platforms shown?

Yes

[ch3shirecat]

So, according to that logic, if the passenger numbers are irrelevant, it would make more sense to build a Simple Platform (72c/month) with a Country Station (72c/month) than just one Station (324c/month)?

[sdog]

So, according to that logic, if the passenger numbers are irrelevant, it would make more sense to build a Simple Platform (72c/month) with a Country Station (72c/month) than just one Station (324c/month)?

it depends only on the number of passengers waiting there. a cheap platform and a bus stop next to it might be all you need. Furthermore, in simutrans standard, there is afaik, no difference between station capacity for freight and pax. You could build a bulk storage to increase the passenger capacity of your station :-P

[Combuijs]

Furthermore, in simutrans standard, there is afaik, no difference between station capacity for freight and pax

That would depend on a setting in simuconf.tab:

Code Select Expand

# if enabled (default = 0 off) stops may have different capacities for passengers, mail, and  freight
seperate_halt_capacities = 0


[ch3shirecat]

So to enable that I just put 1 in the last line?

[Combuijs]

Yep! Might only work for new games from then on, not for existing games. Always hard to tell...