Circuit or Point to Point.

[dart]

What is best for passengers and the growth of a city since it depends on connections to other cities if I assume correctly. Multiple point to points to each city or a Circuit loop around with a stop in each city going clockwise and counter- clockwise. Or is it a mix of both with lines spanning 3 or 4 cities per line.

Thanks for the help.

[Vimpster]

What is most advantageous for city growth will not neccesarily be what is most profitable or enjoyable. Ideally, for maximum growth you want a direct connection from the city to every other city. No mid-stops. Even more ideal would be multiple direct lines connecting a city to every other city. Ensuring a connection directly from the residential area to the commercial and industrial areas of all the other towns.

In other words, circuits are not the best. But since they are generally a little more complicated than a point to point route, they can by more enjoyable to play with.

[𝓕𝔁]

I haven't played for a while, but from what I recall, a circuit could be troublesome, but not always. What I mean by that is, take for instance:

A loop A>B>C>D>E->A....

If passengers from A want to go to C and the route is popular (perhaps A and C are booming) there may be no capacity (or limited) for those at B to also go to C.

Of course, circuits can also save you some cash early game, so that's when I use them most.

I find Point to point to be the better option late game, especially with higher populations, usually by that point, cash flow is less of an issue too.

Your mileage may vary, but this is what works for me :)

[killakanz]

Point to point used to be a much better idea in Train Fever to defeat the dreaded 20 minute rule, but since this doesn't apply in Transport Fever, circuits are much more attractive to players who don't like seeing the trains flip around at a station.

The only thing about it is you'll need higher capacity trains as you add more stops. Unlike point-to-point, your passenger train wont empty out entirely before taking on the waiting passengers since some already on board are heading for a different stop.

As others have said though, if you want city growth, point-to-point is the way to go. Pile on those direct connections...

[Stealthy]

Long mainlines with branches. Can't stop money flowing in. I do on 1:3 map up to 10-12 stations on 2-3 main lines and then use branches to link rest of the cities in.

Start game with 4 stations on mainline and one branching in at middle. For example A-B-C-D mainline and B-E branch. B grows fast and money keeps just coming. Lot of passengers.

Plus mainlines allow efficient networking and freight runs on more realistic way.

[canophone]

I tend to mix them up a little. But more point to point mainlines.

[genemead]

Point-to-point. It's much more adjustable to match demand.

[General Tso]

My experience matches what is mentioned above for the most part.

Circuit: More fun at times and trains don't do the fake turn around thing.

Point To Point: More profitable and indirectly causes cities to grow faster.

As a test you could try using only passenger trains on a map. Select a city near the center. Setup one passenger rail line to it and let it run for awhile. You should see an improvement in the population numbers in the city info box. Now place another line and repeat. Then keep adding lines until it reaches excellent status. I tried this with a starting date of 1850. It took 3 single rail lines to increase the rating to excellent. But I noticed as the city grew I needed to add more lines to the city to keep the status at excellent. So it looks like larger cities require more passenger service to maintain growth (makes sense).

[Relayer]

I do multiple circuits for groups of cities and then when the need is there connect two circle lines with another circle to transport passengers from one sector of the map to another. On occasion I use feeder lines for those cities in the "boondocks". Seems to work quite well as they are most always the profit leaders. Planning ahead for that is important. If you're laying a 4-line track for instance and see growth potential, lay six or eight lines, leaving space to route.