Capacity/throughput of cargo train terminal to feed commercial district?

[-_Tyger_-]

I'm trying to figure out how much commercial a single cargo train terminal can support. I built a highway-isolated grid and connected a cargo train terminal to the outside train connection. However, with only 320 cells of high density commercial zoned and built, most if not all of the buildings are complaining about not enough goods to sell. I let it run for awhile, figuring it would take time for orders to be placed and goods to be shipped in from other cities, but they went all the way to red and then were abandoned. I see trucks driving around and a few buildings are operating normally at level 2, but it seems impossible that a cargo terminal can't support way more imports. I don't even have Big Business Benefactor turned on, so this is really terrible throughput.

I have a small grid, with 320 cells of high density commercial. Police, fire garbage and crematory are inside the grid, but there is no other traffic. The cargo terminal is on a one-way road with a one-way loop leading up to it. There is no traffic other than services and commercial deliveries, so this can't be a traffic problem. There are very few trains coming, so something is wrong. How many cells of high density commercial should a cargo terminal reasonably support?

[BucketBrain]

There are very few trains coming, so something is wrong. How many cells of high density commercial should a cargo terminal reasonably support?

They can handle a lot of stuff and your problem would be the traffic they can generate , not their capacity . Only a few trains arriving ? l would check my rails - not the tracks , the rails itself - zoomed in to see their connections at switching points .
lf you click on a commercial building that complains no goods , switch on the route overlay to see if there is delivery and from where they come .
If you have any other industry on the other side of your town , they may try to deliver too and if they run out of time ( too long route - traffic - wrong direction of an one way road ) , you would see the issues you are facing now
Some screenshots and stats about city size and unemployment - education could help to help

[-_Tyger_-]

I checked the tracks to be sure, thanks for the tip. They looked well connected and the few trains that were coming came from both directions. Again, the commercial sector is an isolated grid, no highway connections, so it's not a problem with the speed goods could be delivered from across the map - they simply can't be. It's also a city with only office and commercial, so all goods have to be imported.

However, I think I figured out why the cargo terminal wasn't working well. I had a well developed commercial center in another part of the map that has been connected to the highway system. the highway linkage was the best I've ever done and while it had tons of traffic and a bit of red, I never had any problems getting enough goods. However, I noticed shortly after I made this post that suddenly most of the buildings in that sector were complaining about not having enough good and truck traffic had dropped to a fraction.

My guess is that even though the cargo terminal wasn't connected to any highway, somehow the commercial buildings in the existing area were requesting goods through the terminal, even though it was impossible to deliver them. After I turned off the cargo terminal, the existing commercial center started to get deliveries via truck and after a few months it sorted itself out.

I'm happy to post some screenshots if anyone wants more detail. I did a save while I was having the issue. However, I don't see how unemployment or education have anything to do with commercial cargo deliveries. Can you explain?

[BucketBrain]

Glad you found the reason .
Your commercial center includes the cargo station and is not connected to the high way or any other roads of the city . If there is any road connection to your city , cut it and have a look again . Another reason for that behavior could be the possible service distance of the station .
My interest in your unemployment and education is a shot with a long bow and pointless as you don´t have any industry . l like this concept . l do nearly the same , but refuse to import too - no road or cargo connection to outside the map , only passengers .
1600 cells commerce and leisure + 1200 cells Cluster at 29 000 pop and 19 000 tourists
And yes , therefore l would like to see some pictures and stats about your project .
ln some parts l use closed grids and had to mod the service range of some assets down , to avoid ´ out of range ´ errors .

[-_Tyger_-]

Here you go:
My current city (after fixing not enough goods/cargo issue). The Cargo Terminal is there in the middle right, but still turned off.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1854902668

This is the levels view so you can easily see what is Office, Commercial and Residential:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1854902697

And here are the population and education views:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1854902735
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1854902735

[BucketBrain]

Nice seperated districts , a lot of offices , l think . How many commercial did you zone and how mutch do you import . l still have no clue about the amound of goods for commercial . l started at GreenCities release with that DLC and the main game , l never played without Cluster .
What are those spots all over the city ? Landfills ?
You posted the education 2 times instead of the population stats , but as long your birth and death rate is about 320 ( pop 63000/ 260 weeks livespan ) a week , you should be fine for future

[-_Tyger_-]

Thanks! There about 78,000 cells of commercial right now (minus roads - I don't have an easy way to measure). Imports are 3260, but the cargo terminal isn't turned back on yet, so that's all from the highway. This much commercial isn't stressing that road system at all. I got the design from this guide and so far I like it. We'll see what happens when I turn the cargo terminal back on. Here's a shot of the road system in action:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1855003612
The spots are incinerators. :( The spots will disappear when I get monuments and put down the Eden Project. All of the pre-reqs are met, but 90k is still a ways away. However, because of the way garbage trucks work, I've found you need far more incinerators to get enough coverage. Here's my post about that: https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/cxjmfr/psa_garbage_collection_is_rubbish_how_to_resolve/.
(Fixed the population screenshot link)

[-_Tyger_-]

For my next project, I'm going to redo the metro connections. Right now they link one to another, but I think each residential metro station should have 2 links, 1 to office and 1 to commercial.

However, in the meantime I started a test city to see how big it would grow without any commercial. I've passed 7500, so now it's become a test of how big it can grow with only High Res and Office.