Monorail Questions

[scpool1986]

I’m so excited to be posting this, I’ve finally got a city set up with monorail and the monorail is working beautifully. It’s still in its infancy stage (1 route and 10 or 12 stations) but for a more unified system it looks like I’m going to have to have multiple routes going through several stations and I wanted to get some clarification before disrupting more of my city with even more construction since the original monorail line runs down the middle of my highway(example below) and when I was done doing that work and unpaused the game there were vehicles everywhere. Here are my questions:
-How many individual routes can the standard monorail station handle?
-When putting in the stops if I don’t put a stop at a station it’ll just go right through, right?

And as promised, an example of how the main line is run
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1590229503

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1591132227

[jecleworth]

I have personally had bad luck trying to have multiple routes going through one station unless you are using a monorail hub. Otherwise, you will probably end up with a traffic jam. And yes, if you haven't flagged the station as a stop, the monorail will go right through without stopping.

[scpool1986]

Originally posted by jecleworth:

I have personally had bad luck trying to have multiple routes going through one station unless you are using a monorail hub. Otherwise, you will probably end up with a traffic jam. And yes, if you haven't flagged the station as a stop, the monorail will go right through without stopping.

I’ve been doing hand drawings of possible routes and so far I’ve been able to knock down the number of stations with more than 2 routes stopping at it down to 3, 2 in my smaller manufacturing district by my airport complex and 1 in the main part of my city that will serve as a connection point for a line going along the coast connecting the oil industry areas along the coast.

I also have a train-metro-monorail hub towards the middle of my map (between the main residential and industrial areas) to allow for passengers to be able to switch between the intercity rail system and my city’s monorail system.

[lozacenz]

Generally speaking, with monorail stations, one route each way (even if it's the same one coming back), though if you do it right it can handle two each way.

And yes, if you don't include a stop on the line, the train won't stop. It will drive straight through the station. Unless you include a bypass track! Then it will prefer going Around the station provided the bypass track isn't too much longer. Which means they don't get blocked by trains which are stopping.


The following is a bunch of long, rambly advice on how to make monorails and trains work better within the game. Some of it is probably quite helpful, some of it is probbaly useless:

Thing to keep in mind, however, is that you should never have a train (any train, though monorails are particularly bad) stop at an end of line station and then reverse back out of it. this will cause traffic jams. Even with only one route, sometimes (again, monorails are particularly bad) Fortunately, this can be solved by making a loop track out the back of the station and around to rejoin the line in front of it. (make sure it loops in the direction which means that the outbound trains using it aren't crossing the inbound trains, or the other way around) The trains will even consider such a loop the better option if it's not unreasonably long. one way track is best for this, there's no trains coming from the other direction anyway, and one way monorail track takes up Very little space.

Aside from being less forgiving in terms of how many trains a given station can handle (not Much less, mind you, there are just a lot more railway station mods which fix this than there are monorail station mods. Even for regular train stations, the Ideal is one route per platform), the logic for monorails is identical to that for regular trains. The only difference is that monorail stations take up less space, the tracks can run above roads (though given how roads behave, the end result is something of a rollercoaster if there's any slopes involved <_<), and monorails can't go underground.

So far as I can tell, your best bet if you have multiple lines needing to stop in the same place is to build either a hub or multiple stations (one on each side of the road rather than one On the road, for example. Make sure to include a pedestrian over/underpass for crossing from one to the other)

Note that the Tracks can handle multiple routes just fine, it's just the stations which are an issue.

I would generally recommend (though I find this is an area where monorails usually struggle less than trains) that when you branch the track, rather than just using an intersection like in the screenshot, you make something closer to how highway intersections work. Trains (and monorails) should, if possible, never have to cross the track used by oncoming trains (and monorails). When the monorail track is over road this isn't possible, but when it's independant it is. This greatly increases the amount of traffic an intersection can handle without causing traffic jams.
That said, the traffic jam issues is mostly a freight issue (which is why monorails Mostly don't care so much), as passenger trains (and monorails) will try to unbunch on at least a per-route basis and have fixed numbers per line rather than just spawning new trains whenever.
(in your screenshot, the track crossing the highway should split into two single tracks before it does, with the incoming track going Over the main line before coming down and connecting on the other side, and the outgoing track just connecting in as it already does. This means trains coming from the right of the screenshot and continuing on do not interact with trains coming from the Top of the screenshot, rather than having to wait for each other. Which increases how many trains can pass through without issue. Just like a highway interchange)
In real life, this would be a collosal waste of resources, obviously. Most of the time, at least. But in real life there would also be proper block signaling achieving the same thing.

[scpool1986]

Originally posted by lozacenz:

Generally speaking, with monorail stations, one route each way (even if it's the same one coming back), though if you do it right it can handle two each way.

And yes, if you don't include a stop on the line, the train won't stop. It will drive straight through the station. Unless you include a bypass track! Then it will prefer going Around the station provided the bypass track isn't too much longer. Which means they don't get blocked by trains which are stopping.


The following is a bunch of long, rambly advice on how to make monorails and trains work better within the game. Some of it is probably quite helpful, some of it is probbaly useless:

Thing to keep in mind, however, is that you should never have a train (any train, though monorails are particularly bad) stop at an end of line station and then reverse back out of it. this will cause traffic jams. Even with only one route, sometimes (again, monorails are particularly bad) Fortunately, this can be solved by making a loop track out the back of the station and around to rejoin the line in front of it. (make sure it loops in the direction which means that the outbound trains using it aren't crossing the inbound trains, or the other way around) The trains will even consider such a loop the better option if it's not unreasonably long. one way track is best for this, there's no trains coming from the other direction anyway, and one way monorail track takes up Very little space.

Aside from being less forgiving in terms of how many trains a given station can handle (not Much less, mind you, there are just a lot more railway station mods which fix this than there are monorail station mods. Even for regular train stations, the Ideal is one route per platform), the logic for monorails is identical to that for regular trains. The only difference is that monorail stations take up less space, the tracks can run above roads (though given how roads behave, the end result is something of a rollercoaster if there's any slopes involved <_<), and monorails can't go underground.

So far as I can tell, your best bet if you have multiple lines needing to stop in the same place is to build either a hub or multiple stations (one on each side of the road rather than one On the road, for example. Make sure to include a pedestrian over/underpass for crossing from one to the other)

Note that the Tracks can handle multiple routes just fine, it's just the stations which are an issue.

I would generally recommend (though I find this is an area where monorails usually struggle less than trains) that when you branch the track, rather than just using an intersection like in the screenshot, you make something closer to how highway intersections work. Trains (and monorails) should, if possible, never have to cross the track used by oncoming trains (and monorails). When the monorail track is over road this isn't possible, but when it's independant it is. This greatly increases the amount of traffic an intersection can handle without causing traffic jams.
That said, the traffic jam issues is mostly a freight issue (which is why monorails Mostly don't care so much), as passenger trains (and monorails) will try to unbunch on at least a per-route basis and have fixed numbers per line rather than just spawning new trains whenever.
(in your screenshot, the track crossing the highway should split into two single tracks before it does, with the incoming track going Over the main line before coming down and connecting on the other side, and the outgoing track just connecting in as it already does. This means trains coming from the right of the screenshot and continuing on do not interact with trains coming from the Top of the screenshot, rather than having to wait for each other. Which increases how many trains can pass through without issue. Just like a highway interchange)
In real life, this would be a collosal waste of resources, obviously. Most of the time, at least. But in real life there would also be proper block signaling achieving the same thing.

Thank you for all that, I really mean it. The split in the screenshot was where it cuts off to go through a rail-metro-monorail hub to allow train passengers to transfer directly to the monorail without having to leave the building. There is also an “airport express” that completely bypasses the hub and continues on at that point to the airport, skipping all the remaining stations down the line. I guess I should have posted this picture too. I’ll add it to the initial post.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1591132227

[BLÀde]

when i make a monorail i just make it one way and one track and loop it around the whole area. if i need to add another station i just alter the route as needed. that's how monorails work in real life anyway.

[scpool1986]

Originally posted by BLÀde:

when i make a monorail i just make it one way and one track and loop it around the whole area. if i need to add another station i just alter the route as needed. that's how monorails work in real life anyway.

I tried the one way track idea but my rider numbers went down. Only reason I could think of was they didn’t want to sit in the monorail while it made a huge loop 3/4 of the way across the map and back. After that I did some tweaking and redid the layout of the rail-metro-monorail hub area and my rider numbers not only went back up but also were higher than before for both monorail and passenger train. The picture below is the new layout of where the rail-monorail-metro hub is at.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1591778197

[Son of the Red Earth]

Work a little on the angles of your curves. You will notice they will not lose speed and everyone will get where they need faster.

[lozacenz]

Originally posted by scpool1986:

Originally posted by BLÀde:

when i make a monorail i just make it one way and one track and loop it around the whole area. if i need to add another station i just alter the route as needed. that's how monorails work in real life anyway.

I tried the one way track idea but my rider numbers went down. Only reason I could think of was they didn’t want to sit in the monorail while it made a huge loop 3/4 of the way across the map and back. After that I did some tweaking and redid the layout of the rail-metro-monorail hub area and my rider numbers not only went back up but also were higher than before for both monorail and passenger train. The picture below is the new layout of where the rail-monorail-metro hub is at.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1591778197

On the right side of that screen shot, you have two monorail tracks coming into the station, which cross over each other with an intersection. You'd be better off just swapping which line went to which station platform and changing the tracks to match so as to eliminate the intersection. (that is, the top track should go to the top platform, the bottom track to the bottom platform, rather than the other way around.)
With that set up there's no reason not to make that change, though if things were a bit different (such as the tracks on the Other side of the station splitting off to different destinations rather than merging together), you should again treat rail intersections (train or monorail) more like highway interchanges if/when you can. Nothing should ever be crossing the path of oncoming traffic if you can avoid it, basically. (one way tracks as over/underpasses is the usual solution)

That said, it probably doesn't matter Too much so long as you're not overloading the intersection or station, it just means the number of trains needed to overload them is lower than it otherwise would be.

On a different note, you're absolutely right about why your rider numbers would drop with a one way loop. Riding the whole loop to get to the next station up the line in the opposite direction is always going to be inferior to just taking a car, and often worse than walking!
Much better to run a two way loop of track and then have two lines running on it, one looping each way. If you're making loops at all, obviously. They're useful, but not universally the best option.

Oh, and while monorails Can handle sharp curves (for road intersections), they're still not a good idea. Use the curved road/track/whatever tool (to the right of where you select your track, by the tools used to adjust how much you raise or lower the elevation at a time), rather than just running a straight section, then another straight section off that at an angle, and so on.
It looks a lot more natural and the trains will move along it much more smoothly, loosing less speed, thus making the entire route 'faster', which sould increase the number of riders too (admittedly not always by very much).
Also, some workshop monorails have longer than standard length cars. They have a larger turning radius or Something, because when two of them hit a sharp corner coming from opposite directions? One of them Stops before the corner so the other one can go past and get out of the way (despite the tracks they're on not acutally intersecting). The standard monorail train, with shorter cars, does not do this, nor do workshop monorail trains with standard length cars.

[scpool1986]

Originally posted by lozacenz:

Originally posted by scpool1986:

I tried the one way track idea but my rider numbers went down. Only reason I could think of was they didn’t want to sit in the monorail while it made a huge loop 3/4 of the way across the map and back. After that I did some tweaking and redid the layout of the rail-metro-monorail hub area and my rider numbers not only went back up but also were higher than before for both monorail and passenger train. The picture below is the new layout of where the rail-monorail-metro hub is at.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1591778197

On the right side of that screen shot, you have two monorail tracks coming into the station, which cross over each other with an intersection. You'd be better off just swapping which line went to which station platform and changing the tracks to match so as to eliminate the intersection. (that is, the top track should go to the top platform, the bottom track to the bottom platform, rather than the other way around.)
With that set up there's no reason not to make that change, though if things were a bit different (such as the tracks on the Other side of the station splitting off to different destinations rather than merging together), you should again treat rail intersections (train or monorail) more like highway interchanges if/when you can. Nothing should ever be crossing the path of oncoming traffic if you can avoid it, basically. (one way tracks as over/underpasses is the usual solution)

That said, it probably doesn't matter Too much so long as you're not overloading the intersection or station, it just means the number of trains needed to overload them is lower than it otherwise would be.

On a different note, you're absolutely right about why your rider numbers would drop with a one way loop. Riding the whole loop to get to the next station up the line in the opposite direction is always going to be inferior to just taking a car, and often worse than walking!
Much better to run a two way loop of track and then have two lines running on it, one looping each way. If you're making loops at all, obviously. They're useful, but not universally the best option.

Oh, and while monorails Can handle sharp curves (for road intersections), they're still not a good idea. Use the curved road/track/whatever tool (to the right of where you select your track, by the tools used to adjust how much you raise or lower the elevation at a time), rather than just running a straight section, then another straight section off that at an angle, and so on.
It looks a lot more natural and the trains will move along it much more smoothly, loosing less speed, thus making the entire route 'faster', which sould increase the number of riders too (admittedly not always by very much).
Also, some workshop monorails have longer than standard length cars. They have a larger turning radius or Something, because when two of them hit a sharp corner coming from opposite directions? One of them Stops before the corner so the other one can go past and get out of the way (despite the tracks they're on not acutally intersecting). The standard monorail train, with shorter cars, does not do this, nor do workshop monorail trains with standard length cars.

Holy caca! I thought I had lined the tracks up so my Riverpoint route (upper route) went into the second platform and my Central Collector (track coming up from bottom of the picture) using the first one. Thank you so much for pointing that out, I’m serious I’ll add it to my list of things to fix in that city.

[5510corteen]

Originally posted by BLÀde:

when i make a monorail i just make it one way and one track and loop it around the whole area. if i need to add another station i just alter the route as needed. that's how monorails work in real life anyway.

The only problem I see with a one way set-up is, for example:
You have 12 stations on your route. If you want to get to the 11 station which might be closer to your starting point you would have to one-way it all the way around to get to the 11th station. In my case, my stations cover about 4 mile loops with the last station in the loop only about 1/4 mile from the starting station. The rider would have to do the whole 4 miles to get 1/4 mile away.