Two questions:
1. Are the transportation costs and earnings for delivered wares calculated based on the distance between stations or the distance between industries?
2. If a consumer is connected to the same station as a producer, do I get any earnings from it?
1) stations
2) no
Earnings are not necessarily calculated from the straight distance between the stations, though. And costs are based on distance driven.
I understand that cost is calculated based on driven distance, but what do you mean by "Earnings are not necessarily calculated from the straight distance between the stations"? Could you give an example for it?
simuconf.tab lists three possibilities. Pak sets, and users into tab file editing, can select which one to use.
0 - You get paid for the distance you have driven the cargo (or so I understand the comment in simuconf.tab)
1 - You get paid for the distance between two stations, which may be intermediate stops
2 - You get paid for how much closer you bring the cargo to it's final destination (a station/stop)
The higher the number, the more important it seems to be to avoid detours.