What is best Frequencies?

[Laechler]

Hi, wanted to ask what the best frequencies are, For bus, train, etc.
There are many speculations on the internet regarding this. Train 3 min or bus with 2 min.
At the moment everything is running at a frequency of 60-70 seconds and of course nothing is busy and i lose many Money.

[jofre6sb]

Frequencies depend entirely on demand (there is no ideal frequency always applicable): this is something you have to look at and adjust so that the vehicles go to more than 70-80% capacity and there is no overloaded station (all and that if they are only 1 or 2 you can put a few lines to reinforce it). The game sounds like a very useful layer that tells you the flows of people with public (green) and private (blue) transportation. I tell you the best that can be achieved:
By plane: if the airports have only one line, the maximum frequency you can reach will be 1min 20seconds. But for airports that have 2 lines I recommend about 3min 15 seconds / line (although I have reached frequencies of 1min 50 / line), because the more you try to increase the frequency the more they get in the way and make unnecessary turns.
With trains the maximum frequency I have reached is 1min 25 seconds (very busy high speed line, round trip). And with buses or trams 25 seconds (or even less).

[Vimpster]

Unlike the previous game, wait time does not count against the travel time calculations, therefore frequency no longer matters. So long as you are taking care of the demand you can go for low frequency/high capacity or high frequency/low capacity. Which ever you want.

[Tsubame ⭐]

Do not focus on frequency but rather on % capacity carried.

You want your vehicles to run at full capacity, or at least as close as possible to that.

Too many half-empty vehicles will result in a loss.

To sum it up, the ideal frequency is the one where your vehicles are running full all the time, no more, no less.

[Taity]

Frequency does not really matter so much in this version of the game.
A line will either be a high frequency with low capacity per unit, OR
A line will be a low frequency with high capacity per unit.

While you can set up a line that has both high frequency and high capacity, this will in most cases result in each vehicle not running at full capacity. This will result in the overall net loss of the entire network chain or line and most often each individual section of a chain will be a net loss (exceptions may occur where an entire chain is still profitable, but not all segments of a chain will be profitable, thus reducing the lines overall impact).

Typically you want to try to focus on your supply/demand rates, while using frequency of line(s) to help stop or limit blocks/delays caused by multiple lines/vehicles interfering with each other. This will help result in a line that is working at its most optimal performance while reducing any impact on other lines and will help you to control not only your network overall, but also the growth rate of towns and/or factories and demand generated as well as the amount you supply.

A further note to take into account is that there are some situations where making a profit on a line OR a section of a network chain is almost impossible (passenger feeder lines for example) however even having one line or section of a network operating at a loss can be offset by the passenger or products end destination. For example having a train line from Town A to town B may result in 80 ppl taking that train. If you however set up feeder bus lines in each town to help feed people into that train station, you could increase that 80 passengers substantially to the point that any lost revenue incurred by these feeder services is not only offset by the increased potential supply to that train station, but often helps to further increase the profit of that line (especially when you take into account the affects of supply and demand on towns and industries.

[Taity]

Originally posted by Kipsley:

What I did was I used my vehicle manager to go through and check every bus and truck (and even train) to see what each was carrying. I found that even with frequency of around 4 to 5 minutes, many of my busses and trucks were running empty. Many of my trains had very few passengers.
So I began to cull out busses and trucks that were running empty. Some bus lines now only run 4 busses. Some trucking lines only run 2 trucks. Some of my train lines now have a frequency of around 10 to 12 minutes, but I'm making money, no overloaded stations, no jams on my train network.
So I say.... "Let the virtual people wait at the stations".
Cull out any bus, truck, or train that is running on or near empty as these just take up space, computer resources, and money. Don't be too fussed about frequency.
And use the "Timetables" mod as this allows you to "sit" your busses and trains at terminal end-of-line stations so they don't all bunch up.

That is a good start, keeping the amount of vehicles u have on a line limited is always the best approach where it is applicable to limit delays, blocks and wasted funds. However keep an eye on each station/stop linked to that line, as any overcrowded station/stop (this is inclusive of passenger or cargo) will result in a penalty to that town that is connected to that line, or to any of its chain where cross cargo or passenger transfer occurs between lines. Although the penalty received in these towns is mostly negligible it is recommended to ensure this is eliminated or reduced wherever possible to ensure a constant supply and demand rating is being kept to ensure max potential out of each line or chain but also make the most out of how supply and demand influences both town and industry growth among other useful things.

[lemming3k]

You could go either way, but low frequency high capacity is the more optimum option due to maintenance costs and the physical capacity of your infrastructure. Fewer trains will need fewer tracks, platforms etc.
You'd do better to pay attention to 'rate', not frequency. It's much easier to match this up to cargo route requirements than passenger routes though.

[canophone]

Originally posted by lemming3k:

You'd do better to pay attention to 'rate', not frequency. It's much easier to match this up to cargo route requirements than passenger routes though.

TpF1, I would say frequency matters more. TpF2, rate matters more.