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Upgrading a line from trucks to trains

Started by BBGunn, March 26, 2014, 01:08:59 AM

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BBGunn

First of all, forgive me if this has already been mentioned on the forum before.  I tried a search and could not find what I was looking for.

Let's say that you have a freight truck line, transporting resources and goods.  Or you have a passenger bus line between a number of cities.  At what point do you change the line from a truck-operated one to a train-operated one? 

I've heard it said before that, for passenger lines, once a bus line has reached 10 convoys and you need to add more, you should get rid of the bus line and switch to a train line.    However, in my current pak128 save (Simutrans standard) I had a profitable bus line with 10 convoys, which was not enough to meet demand.  I built a train line along the route, bought a train, and rerouted city and local bus lines to feed passengers to the trains, so that they could get to the places they were going before.  Despite that, after a few years of game time, the train line was running in the red, and passenger demand had decreased.

And yeah, I bought a reasonably fast train so that I could get some kind of speedbonus (note: it was 1950), but that didn't seem to matter.  Perhaps the train was too fast; passengers were not "stacking up" in the stations anymore, so my vehicles were never full.

So maybe I could go more than 10 road convoys before needing to switch to trains.  Perhaps 20 or 30 would be good.

In addition to all of that (if you are still reading!  Whew, this is long...), I have a profitable meat truck line carrying sheep meat to a food factory.  The two industries are not close, and I have 90 convoys (!) servicing the line.  And yet, this is not enough to stop meat from stacking up at the sheep farm and making the station full all the time.  I thought about switching to a train line, but the truck line is profitable, and I don't want to mess with a good thing, so I wonder if I should just add more trucks.

Anyway, your thoughts?

EDIT:  OOPS... this should probably be in the Help Center.  I apologize.  If a moderator could move this thread, I would appreciate it.

EDIT #2:  That truck line I mentioned earlier in fact does not have 90 convoys.  It has 72.
Another beautiful day!

私が日本語の間違いをしたら、すみません。
Desculpe-me quaisquer erros portugueses.  Sou só aprendiz.

Ters

I don't think I ever have converter for trucks to train(s). Industries don't siginificantly change production rates, so whatever I originally chose, will do forever. Newer and bigger vehicles reduce the number of vehicles per line over time, but that's it.

For passengers, and sometimes also mail, switching from road to rail (trains or trams) is more normal. I simply upgrade when buses simply can't keep up (or when bus stops no longer have enough capacity). There is no fixed limit, I just get enough of the bothersome buses and their traffic jams.

ӔO

I would use a faster bus and higher speed roads first.
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BBGunn

@Ters - I see.  I do what you do for passenger networks.  But I wondered if it was possible to do the same for freight and goods.  I guess if a road vehicle line is working well, why change to trains? :)

@ӔO - Thank you for your input.   I like making road networks, and all of this is encouraging me to just stick with road networks in my save. :)
Another beautiful day!

私が日本語の間違いをしたら、すみません。
Desculpe-me quaisquer erros portugueses.  Sou só aprendiz.

Ters

Quote from: BBGunn on March 26, 2014, 02:02:57 PM
@Ters - I see.  I do what you do for passenger networks.  But I wondered if it was possible to do the same for freight and goods.  I guess if a road vehicle line is working well, why change to trains? :)

It's certainly possible. I think I've switched from ships to trains on at least one occasion, when trains became powerful enough to compete with ships. This would realistically happen before the time I believe most people set as the starting year for their games. Trains generally always have an edge on road vehicles for freight in Simutrans. Perhaps if one started before even trains are available, but I find the game almost unplayable with just horse drawn carts. This is mostly because Simutrans doesn't have a changing economic model. Neither did Transport Tycoon, but at least some of the Railroad Tycoon games have some aspects of it. At least pak64 has different generations of the same industries, but as they don't replace eachother, it doesn't affect how existing lines work.

BBGunn

@Ters - Very insightful.  Thank you very much.

I guess upgrading from trucks to trains should be done on a case-by-case basis, considering a lot of factors such as availability of certain vehicles, whether or not a good has a speed bonus, etc.
Another beautiful day!

私が日本語の間違いをしたら、すみません。
Desculpe-me quaisquer erros portugueses.  Sou só aprendiz.