How to profit with trams?

[Legata Flavia]

I tried to setup the line in a way (Residental - Shop - Industry), but it was horrible. So I added train station in to shop area and now the passenger flow improved a lot, but its still barelly profitable. So how to do it? D:!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2245811644

[bballjo]

I find inner city traffic to be hard to go beyond even, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

Couple pointers:
1. Citizens prefer direct routes
2. Citizens prefer to walk as little as possible
3. More passengers means more profit
4. Trams work best in straight lines

Probably all pretty common sense.

In your case, instead of the circle around the city, I would make 2 straight lines across the city, N-S and E-W. Make sure there is a station in the middle that allows for easy transfer for citizens.
Then I would make sure to only have 1 or 2 trams running on each line...higher frequency is good, but once you add a lot of vehicles you are going to get slowed down. You can add more if there is enough demand.
I would add a bus route that connects the other parts of the city, like an inner square that is also connected to the tram lines, again keep vehicles low

Something I tend to do is to place stops approximately every 2 blocks in each direction, and that seems to work well. Once the city grows you should adjust or increase your lines.

Something else that helps...know where your citizens want to go, and make sure there is a public transport option available, the other cities can be pretty far away, but if your travel time is longer that if they would drive they may choose to drive. You can delete or downgrade roads for this if you want.

That's a lot...hope something helped.

[mmmcheesywaffles]

Try placing the line through, rather than around the zones. Paasaengers don't like to walk if a tram is available

However, fastest way to make money with trams is imho to place a terminal on one location in each of 2 cities and use buses to feed to those terminals. This avoids trams dealing with lots of turns and traffic in the city.

For larger cities the trams can still be profitable providing you keep them on low traffic routes.

My usual strategy is to build 3 terminals per larger town. One per zone. Then use buses to feed passengers to them. I avoid buses between zones so most passengers use at least a bus and a tram to get to their destinations. To kick start a town with new transport I only use buses for internal transport, however, if the town is big enough I usually run 2 trams minimum and roughly 1 tram per 200 population on any inter zone traffic. Otherwise I use timings to keep a route viable between 2 towns. Most such routes are in profit within 2 years.

Workers and shoppers from nearby towns seem to like my layout. So city growth goes up and the trams are usually running at highest speed.

[StarStreak2109]

My take on trams and buses is that they are not to make (huge) profits. If they break even, I am fine with it. Their main task is to fill up my intercity trains, to make them profitable.

[Legata Flavia]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2245911620

This straight, one line layout seems to be more effective.

[Dan]

The thing with trams is they can and do make money regardless of the size of town but you have to understand how towns work or more specifically where the citizens of towns go to and from.

First:

Identify the residential, commercial and industrial areas of a city.

Second:

Realise that the residents will only ever travel from their houses to either Industrial or Commercial areas and back. They will NEVER travel from commercial to industrial or industrial to commercial.

Third:

People will only take your transport options if it is faster then driving. So building highways everywhere is bad for you.

Fourth:

Tied into this your own routes need to be quick because the more stops you put on a line the longer it will take for the people to get where they want to go.


With all those rules in mind any tram line you want to build should do the following:

One end of the tram line should be in the industrial zone, the other end of the line should be in the commercial and the residential zone should be in the middle of the line, in a perfect world....

Ideally you build your intercity train stations in residential zone as well.

If you set this up right your tram lines will earn hundreds of thousands a year and your train lines should earn millions.

With that said don't get too hung up about tram lines making money. It's more important that they transport people then make money themselves because they make money indirectly by funnelling people from your trains into the city.

With that said if your tram line isn't making money but your trams are still running full in places that means that the section of your line with lots of people should become its own tram line and the areas of the line where the trams are running empty should become its own separate line.

Also 2 last things to remember:

1. Citizens can't take their car with them so if they need to get somewhere not covered by your network they will always drive even if your network gets close

2. Just because the indicator says a building is in a stations catchment area it doesn't mean citizens will use your network. Walking time does factor into the calculations for travel time and walking is very slow.

Hope that helps everyone.

[mrtree]

I have found trams to be very lucrative when used in lieu of passenger trains to connect neighboring towns. I set up a bus route within town, with combined bus/tram stops on the fringe of the town, and then connect the neighboring cities with a tram-only route (prevent autos on the road you use as a tram roadbed). The bus route gets profitable, too, as it is kept busy shuttling folks to and from the tram stops. The passengers pay a lot for their long journey between towns, yet the trams have such low maintenance... it feels like cheating!

[Legata Flavia]

:0

[lozacenz]

Originally posted by mrtree:

I have found trams to be very lucrative when used in lieu of passenger trains to connect neighboring towns. I set up a bus route within town, with combined bus/tram stops on the fringe of the town, and then connect the neighboring cities with a tram-only route (prevent autos on the road you use as a tram roadbed). The bus route gets profitable, too, as it is kept busy shuttling folks to and from the tram stops. The passengers pay a lot for their long journey between towns, yet the trams have such low maintenance... it feels like cheating!

Cars will run in bus lanes if there is no other way to get where they're going... but nothing says the other route needs to be anything like direct.

[Legata Flavia]

Originally posted by lozacenz:

Originally posted by mrtree:

I have found trams to be very lucrative when used in lieu of passenger trains to connect neighboring towns. I set up a bus route within town, with combined bus/tram stops on the fringe of the town, and then connect the neighboring cities with a tram-only route (prevent autos on the road you use as a tram roadbed). The bus route gets profitable, too, as it is kept busy shuttling folks to and from the tram stops. The passengers pay a lot for their long journey between towns, yet the trams have such low maintenance... it feels like cheating!

Cars will run in bus lanes if there is no other way to get where they're going... but nothing says the other route needs to be anything like direct.

I think that if the road takes too long due of curves and so on, then the game gives you warning.

[O.Shikami]

you may tried about decrease the number of trams,and why you set 2 route with the same way ? you don't need to do like that if your route have just 3 stops.

[Legata Flavia]

Originally posted by 小小Kami桑:

you may tried about decrease the number of trams,and why you set 2 route with the same way ? you don't need to do like that if your route have just 3 stops.

Its 4 stops and opposite ways.

[Bozwai]

Don't know of any city that has a tram line making a circle around the outskirts. Or a village for that matter.

[mrtree]

Originally posted by lozacenz:

Originally posted by mrtree:

I have found trams to be very lucrative when used in lieu of passenger trains to connect neighboring towns. I set up a bus route within town, with combined bus/tram stops on the fringe of the town, and then connect the neighboring cities with a tram-only route (prevent autos on the road you use as a tram roadbed). The bus route gets profitable, too, as it is kept busy shuttling folks to and from the tram stops. The passengers pay a lot for their long journey between towns, yet the trams have such low maintenance... it feels like cheating!

Cars will run in bus lanes if there is no other way to get where they're going... but nothing says the other route needs to be anything like direct.

I always build a new road to serve as the tram roadbed, and restrict it. I like to use a roadway mod to get something like plain gravel or even no road texture at all, so it just looks like tracks. Unfortunately, as towns grow, the AI likes to upgrade those roads to city streets, so I constantly have to battle to keep the "road" style I want.