difference between tram and bus service?

[mjrudolphi]

Just curious what the difference is to these two options. Do they serve different types of customers?

[Stryderunknown]

Trams have higher capacity, they cost more to run (They might earn more too, but I would have to check. But I've usually found city buslines not making as much as trams along the same route)

• Trams are best as internal shuttles within a city for moving your people around it.
  
• Buses are best situated for moving people between cities that don't have trains or to stations that are further away from the town (say the otherside of a hill where a tram would have problems transversing the Gradient).

[GrinEnx]

Trams often provide more capacity than buses available at any given time. I'm not sure about running cost but trams often travel slightly faster as well. The issue is of course the upfront cost of upgrading streets to tram tracks but I don't usually find this a problem and pretty much exclusively use trams

[canophone]

You can see where they are best according to price per km (you may want to offer different price per km lines), road speed limits (ie: country roads go up to 100km/hr -- the same as the bus, and city roads go up to 70km/hr -- the same as the tram), loading speed (ie: trams have a quicker loading speed), and capacity of the vehicles (ie: trams generally offer more capacity).

[Vimpster]

The advantages of one over the other changes depending on the year you are playing and depending on whether you are using the european set or american set of vehicles. One advantage the trams always have is that you have more control over where they go due to them being restricted to the tracks.

At some points they have a clear speed and/or capacity advantage, and at other times not so much. One of the disadvantages that trams often have is there long length compared to buses with similar capacities. In the 1950s for instance, while using the european set, the trams have a very small speed/capacity advantage but take up more than twice as much space. That can be very problematic on a line where you have so many vehicles that adding more won't help anymore with alleviating the amount of passengers. In such a case having vehicles with slightly less capacity but a much smaller size will be much better as it will allow you to have a lot more vehicles on the line before they start getting in each others way.

[SirLANsalot]

Originally posted by Vimpster:

The advantages of one over the other changes depending on the year you are playing and depending on whether you are using the european set or american set of vehicles. One advantage the trams always have is that you have more control over where they go due to them being restricted to the tracks.

At some points they have a clear speed and/or capacity advantage, and at other times not so much. One of the disadvantages that trams often have is there long length compared to buses with similar capacities. In the 1950s for instance, while using the european set, the trams have a very small speed/capacity advantage but take up more than twice as much space. That can be very problematic on a line where you have so many vehicles that adding more won't help anymore with alleviating the amount of passengers. In such a case having vehicles with slightly less capacity but a much smaller size will be much better as it will allow you to have a lot more vehicles on the line before they start getting in each others way.

Very strange problem there, never had it be that way.


Trams generally are better throughout the game, only at the "end game" aka, no more new things coming out, are they slightly worse then buses. Late Game Trams are slower then buses but the benefit of control over where they go far out weights any drawbacks.

I prefer trams unless I am starting in 1850, then I use buses, and sometimes I go back and upgrade cities to trams. Issue here is in 1850 you don't get electric trams, just horse or steam(EU) trams. While these are good to use, the issue lies in having to upgrade the roads TWICE, once for tram track, and a second time for Electric Tram Track. This is quite an annoyance and one more extra thing to micro manage when the time comes.

HOWEVER, during early game play like in 1850 or 1900, Trams have longer lifespans, meaning you don't need to replace them as often as buses. Mid/Late game (1950+) this becomes a mute point as both bus and tram have the same lifespans as one another, but its a key thing to keep in mind when starting out a new game.

[mjrudolphi]

Originally posted by Vimpster:

One advantage the trams always have is that you have more control over where they go due to them being restricted to the tracks.

Not sure I understand. You control everything in the game based on routes, including buses. What do you consider to be more control where they go?

[SirLANsalot]

Originally posted by mjrudolphi:

Originally posted by Vimpster:

One advantage the trams always have is that you have more control over where they go due to them being restricted to the tracks.

Not sure I understand. You control everything in the game based on routes, including buses. What do you consider to be more control where they go?

The game will auto adjust any route you set to be the most efficient (shortest) point between two stops/stations, ect that you set. when you make a tram route, and put trams on it, the route will auto adjust to follow the roads that have been upgraded with tracks. Rather then trying to follow its own path, it will follow your path you made for it.

Usually bus routes will try to take small roads as shortcuts between two stops, Trams can't and won't do that because they have to follow the track.

[Metacritical]

Pesumably when you build a nice 6 lane road with a bus lane and the stupid game chooses to send your bus down a narrow lane ignoring the 6 lane road because it's a slightly shorter route. with a tramline this can never happen

[mjrudolphi]

Originally posted by SirLANsalot:

Originally posted by mjrudolphi:

Not sure I understand. You control everything in the game based on routes, including buses. What do you consider to be more control where they go?

The game will auto adjust any route you set to be the most efficient (shortest) point between two stops/stations, ect that you set. when you make a tram route, and put trams on it, the route will auto adjust to follow the roads that have been upgraded with tracks. Rather then trying to follow its own path, it will follow your path you made for it.

Usually bus routes will try to take small roads as shortcuts between two stops, Trams can't and won't do that because they have to follow the track.

Ahh got it. But why is that a good thing, just out of curiosity? Traffic?

[chrisasnyder]

What can happen is the city adds new roads that cut through blocks. Then the bus route will shift to the new shorter route and not using the nice 4 lane road with bus lanes. This won't happen to trams.

[Vimpster]

Originally posted by mjrudolphi:

Ahh got it. But why is that a good thing, just out of curiosity? Traffic?

The "shorter" route is often times a slower route. Using a bus that goes 60kph and having it choose to go down side streets with 30kph speed limits can be very annoying. Also having a route zigzag to go diagonally through town instead of staying on the main roads and making as few turns as possible is also annoying because more turns means more slow downs. And lastly, when using a deadend on a line with out the use of a bus terminal than the route will often choose to make a very time consuming loop around a block to turn around. Trams can't choose to do that.

[SBGaming]

Buses and Trams at similar speeds have the same price per km, so whether you run trams or buses, you're getting paid exactly the same.

Looking at the American vehicle set, up until the 1920's (as that up to where I have comparable data up to), Trams have a higher price (and running costs) for equivalent speed buses, but have slightly more capacity. Loading speed would also be an important factor for in city routes. Getting people on or off faster means less time stopped, and more overall time moving.

You also tend to get the new Trams earlier than the equivalent buses, so going trams can get you the speed upgrade, and thus price per km increase sooner.

Stage Coach (1875) vs Horse Trolley Car (1871) * Also Stage Coach is 18kph vs 20kph for the Tram
Mack (1900) vs San Diego Electric Trolley (1893)
Schneider PB2 (1921) vs Peter Witt Streetcar (1917)

[Hogweed Blitz]

I am trying out using trams in between cities now. I start with city to city buses (usually with a bus lane), and now will try and add a tram rail and offer that. i find lower cost transit between cities to be very popular with people, the buses were always filled, and i had a hard time keeping up with them. They always make high profits. Now i am adding trams to that route, and will see how they do. I have yet to use trams in place of buses within the cities, but for the busiest cities I will give that a try.

[ancienthighway]

Originally posted by Stryderunknown:

Trams have higher capacity, they cost more to run (They might earn more too, but I would have to check. But I've usually found city buslines not making as much as trams along the same route)

• Trams are best as internal shuttles within a city for moving your people around it.
  
• Buses are best situated for moving people between cities that don't have trains or to stations that are further away from the town (say the otherside of a hill where a tram would have problems transversing the Gradient).

I go the opposite, using trams between cities, and IF I need to run a bus around I'll use that until I can justify trams.

[ChunkHunter]

yes - I've found inter-city trams work nicely - at least earlier in the game - because of the speed differential.