Campaign 5

[FlyingAllNight]

Alright I can't believe im stumped .... a few years in and im suppose to be averaging 150k a week ?! Last play through I felt in control until this quest popped up. I was only making 40k a week. Couldn't get it up higher.

I need tips for making cash.

Maybe im expanding too quick. No idea..... HELP!

[Mudfog]

Dedicated express lines and restaurant in Stations, dining car on train. $$ will roll in..

[Into Your Heart]

(sorry for english)

Hello :)

Try express lines between multiple cities with these 3 special wagons : Caboose, Dining Car and Mail Car. You can add trains after some time as long as the previous ones are full so you get more money ofc.

And boost the training to 160% and the wages to 130% to get 125% of efficiency (max possible) for Engineer, Stoker, Train Personnel and Security.
You can find these in the Personnel panel in Top of your screen just below your money.

Also you can use research to unlock things to get more passengers and mail but also more money from them. And try to get the fastest express train asap too, so it gets more popularity and speed and so more $$$.

edit: And like Mudfog said, restaurants in cities so you get more money from passengers.
You can also add post office in some of your cities to get more money from mail.

[FlyingAllNight]

Appreciate the help. Will be trying this in my next game. Somehow I have gotten by without doing this. I seriously think I was making 170k a week in Campaign 4.

Also saw some real dumb tactics that will save me time and money.

[FlyingAllNight]

Well I got to 80k at least so improvement.

Bought the dress and cloth stores and had them at level 2.

Trains I did all express except for a few freight trains. Express trains were also set to auto and stayed pretty full each run. Maybe I needed more trains .

[Into Your Heart]

If by automatic you mean their loading, its not a good thing.

You have to put your express lines to "Loading : Express"
Because with automatic, it will transport both passengers/mail AND goods like beer, meat, etc and it will be slower and you ll get less money.
Your express lines are for express trains which transport only passengers and mail. By doing so, your express trains will have the yellow lightning mark (check "Rail Lines" in the top left of your screen) and thats the best for making $$$.

If you want to transport goods ( beers, meat, etc) then you have to make lines dedicated to them.
Add only freight (no mixed or express) trains to these lines and configure "loading : freight" so it will take only goods and not passengers and/or mails.

[Disonta]

Sorry for my bad English.

You should not let express trains run on automatic, otherwise they also take goods with them, which slows down the train significantly.
Always set express trains to express. You only need the company car if you have a task that involves creating a special express line, because then the train is faster thanks to the bonus it gives.
Express trains give a 10% bonus on earnings if I remember correctly. Therefore express always only post and passengers, in the later course of the game I even separate that and make pure mail trains and pure passenger trains, each with only one special wagon.
You earn significantly more that way.

[FlyingAllNight]

Yep usually I dont put them auto but I watched someone do it on auto and get the 150k. I wasn't that lucky :P

[Into Your Heart]

You can use automatic if you want, but with mixed trains, so they are faster than express trains for transporting goods and passengers/mails.

[DD13]

You want to do strict express with express loading. The character you are playing gets her bonuses from express trains (not the engine that you buy, but the way you set the train). I finished this campaign and was having problems being stuck at 90K until I threw in a bunch of express trains :) Good luck

[Dray Prescot]

Keep Freight and Express Trains on their separate dedicated double tracks that use 2 track wide Gridirons to 2 tracks in the Station that are kept separate from each other in the Station., although a double track outside the City could link to 3 or 4 tracks in the Station via a Gridiron. BUT keep Freight and Express Trains COMPLETELY separate from each other. You want Express trains to be moving quickly with NO Freight Trains on their tracks to slow them down and make them wait.

You can even build a 2nd Station in the larger Cities that you would use mostly for Express Trains (the 1st Station in those Cities will get NO Express Trains at all), so it can have two Station Expansion Buildings ( 2 of Restaurant, Market Hall, and Post Office) that support Mail and Passengers. The 1st Station could have a Warehouse and a Dispatch Hall to reduce times in the Station by 20%.

Try to not use wide (more than 2 tracks) Gridirons, particularly more than 4 tracks, they are a choke point on ALL (Freight and Express) Trains entering and leaving each Station.

Most of the time, I would want use a double track linking to 2 tracks in the station with it's own Gridrion. That way you can have 4 trains entering or leaving the Station at the SAME time in the Same direction, without having to wait on other trains going through the same wide Gridiron.

For really busy Stations having to wait on other trains in order to enter or leave the Station is a big time killer, that costs you money, either directly via Mail and Passenger payoffs, or indirectly via fewer Freight Trains being processed in the same time period.

Another time saver, DO NOT turn trains AROUND (reverse direction) in the big and busy City Stations, keep them moving in the same direction (they turn around in Rural Stations or at smaller less busy City Stations). This is doubly helpful, eliminating the turn around time, and allows having each track in a pair of tracks in a Station handling a Train at the SAME Time. This can be done by careful Route Manifests specifying which Track at a Station is used, so that both tracks are in use most of the time.

You goal is too have EVERY track in the Station busy handling a Train MOST of the time.

Do NOT put Maintenance Depots in large busy Stations, they slow down how many trains are using it.

On some Maps, I did this in RE 1 for some Maps, it depends greatly on the locations of the Cities, you can have a Loop (i.e. sort of circular) of 5 or 6 Cities that connects on both ends so the trains on the Loop NEVER have to reverse direction they just keep going in the same direction around the Loop on their own track of the double track they are using.

The problem with this is one random breakdown affects every train on that track going around the Loop. So keep maintenance at a high level.

[romanamor]

I just finished this scenario with a 740450 score without focusing on express traffic. The tasks may make you want to lean heavily on express, but I found that efficient use of automatic trains with Pacific locomotives worked great to minimize the initial cost of setting up your network and allowed your cities to grow. As it turned out, most of my lines still gained express status after the freight traffic stabilized due to the Pacific locomotive.
My initial network connected Paris, Lille and Brussels with a warehouse in Lille to distribute the needed goods for city growth. Don't forget to put in immigration offices at 30k population! Later, expand to Rheims and Auxerre from Paris, adding connections to raw resources where needed to stimulate growth. Last, connect Brussels to Luxemburg and Nancy. Don't forget to tap into that very much needed wood outside of Nancy. If you get the cities growing like this, expand your stations to use 4 tracks with gridirons, you shouldn't have a problem making 150k a week.

[kenruof]

If you are using express trains put restaurants and markets in every city. This will increase your income. I also agree do not put maintenance depots in cites, put them in rural stations out in the country side. I have been using two stations in cities to separate express and freight trains this also helps.

[Fargel_Linellar]

As kenruof and Mudfog said.

Restaurant, Market hall and Post Office (all the station building boosting price) are currently providing 10x more than what they display.

Adding a Restaurant+Market hall in all your station from where passenger board your train will raise your income from passenger by +250%

More than tripling your income from passenger should already put you at 150k per week.

For reference when this task popped up, I was already at 350k per week of profits.

[FlyingAllNight]

Well good news I blew by the 150k mark with still over a year to go. Thank you all for your help.

Here's a list of notes for those of you that may be struggling and doing what I did.
-- I focused too much on freight to each city early on in the game. Cities grew fast but cash focus there hurt profits.
-- Express trains were turning too much at their stops. Now I have them hitting cities in a straight line
-- Wasn't using the market hall, restaurant, and post office as much. Now all cities have them.
-- Paris now isn't fixing my trains. Lower traffic cities now repair.
-- Don't use auto on express lines. I already knew this but then I struggled and watched a dummy YouTuber do it and get 150k. Using express got me to 150k crazy quick while they struggled and barely got it.

[Mudfog]

Well done and thanks for sharing your experience. I look forward to doing that Campaign.