Topic: Passenger networks pre rail

[AP]

I'm after advice. What it boils down to is that I simply can't get the early game to "work" profitably, and really wish I could!

Starting a brand new game, 1800 or thereabouts, I can make stagecoach lines within a city of reasonable size turn a small profit. However, when I connect these cities together, usually with ships (only thing with decent speed/capacity), e.g. the blackwall frigate, I get very low passenger demand to use the intercity service. Very low indeed.. Far less than I suspect I would get 50 years later with a rail service between similar cities. Which makes the route nowhere close to profitable.

My first question is why does nobody want to travel on the ship (too slow? but it's not like there's anything else faster...) Secondly, is my approach wrong, is there a "better way"?

[jamespetts]

Hmm - this is a difficult issue, as the pakset has not been balanced yet. Slowness might well explain why passengers are not travelling (use the "pass. dest." feature on the minimap and look for pink squares). Far fewer people did, in fact, travel in those days because of the time that it took, so this is not entirely unrealistic.

[ӔO]

for 1750~18xx, or until steam trains arrive, I just use a lot of horse carriages.

They easily recoup their costs.

One alternative might be canal ferries. The viaduct is cheaper to build and maintain per km compared to the ground, by the way.

[AP]

One alternative might be canal ferries. The viaduct is cheaper to build and maintain per km compared to the ground, by the way.

Yeah that really needs fixing!

[jamespetts]

Canal passenger boats (called passenger packet boats) were indeed a reality, so we could do with some of those.

[AP]

There also isn't a sea-going sailing ship which carries only passengers. The available vessels are sized to carry far more cargo than passengers, so struggle to make a profit if there aren't freight lines as well as passenger lines wanting to cross the same bit of ocean.