What are the main advantages of using trolleys and trams instead of buses?

[Adil3tr]

What do trams and trolleys offer that buses don't? They're not faster and they don't have the elevation systems of metros, so is it just for traffic management? You definitely don't want to use trams on normal roadways because asphalt tram roads only allow cars to go 80km.

[Stele]

Trolleys doesn't require refueling and trams in addition ignore snow and higher capacity on avarege.

[Duke Flapjack]

They're different.

I apologize, OP, because I'm going to sound harsh.

These kind of comments annoy the hell out of me. What's wrong with doing something simply to do it? You don't have to min/max everything. Sometimes It's just fun to use the Tupelov-144 or build an elevated train network or connect all your cities together with ships.

You shouldn't be going 80kph in areas you use trolleys anyway. You *should* be using speed limits and keep your heavy trucks out of the cities. Again, another thing that's just *fun* to use.

[Bailing_Out]

Cause they look cool

[Adil3tr]

Originally posted by Duke Flapjack:

They're different.

I apologize, OP, because I'm going to sound harsh.

These kind of comments annoy the hell out of me. What's wrong with doing something simply to do it? You don't have to min/max everything. Sometimes It's just fun to use the Tupelov-144 or build an elevated train network or connect all your cities together with ships.

You shouldn't be going 80kph in areas you use trolleys anyway. You *should* be using speed limits and keep your heavy trucks out of the cities. Again, another thing that's just *fun* to use.

But ferries make sense, elevated trains make a huge difference. It's not about min maxing, it's just me wondering if some things are just buses by a different name. I actually built a tram line going through the heart of the city and want to use it to keep bus traffic to a minimum, I move workers to a entrance station that unloads them into a bus stop. I don't want to not have things in the game, I just want some advantage. The main issue I had with trams is people not being able to walk along tram roads and how they can't turn around at all. If trams could clip through or go around road traffic that would also give them a huge advantage.

[Dave]

The point of trams and trolleys is that they're electric; they don't use fuel.

But the game does not always adequately reward us for this as much as maybe it should. With gameplay settings on anything less than the hardest/cosmonaut it matters little or not at all. And even on the hardest settings fuel issues probably won't get serious until your republic is pretty big and high-population. But it does eventually get serious and you become thrilled to build new regions of your republic to use as little fuel as possible.

Trams are also iconic for roleplay reasons. I know you're asking about functionality, but it can't be ignored that trams are an iconic part of many old industrial cities, particularly in eastern europe / former-soviet-union.


One last thing, don't stress about the 80km/hr speed limit on tram-roads. Vehicles almost never go faster than that in busy cities anyway, with traffic, bends in the road, and many vehicles not even having a max speed that high.

[Adil3tr]

I think a couple tweaks could make it really viable. I will probably never play with fuel on because I don't enjoy how finicky the electricity simulation is.

[Nokia 3310]

1. Trolleys do not have to leave their line for refuel. This is already enough to choose them over buses.
2. Trams also can move at full speed at winter. This is even more than enough to choose them over buses.
3. Electric transport does not pollute environment. This is a nice addition to 1 and 2.
4. You can join 2 trams together. This greatly increases workers flow, you can supply 2000 workers per work day or even more. It is hard to setup such flow with buses.

[SiberianDev]

Originally posted by Nokia 3310:

1. Trolleys do not have to leave their line for refuel. This is already enough to choose them over buses.
2. Trams also can move at full speed at winter. This is even more than enough to choose them over buses.
3. Electric transport does not pollute environment. This is a nice addition to 1 and 2.
4. You can join 2 trams together. This greatly increases workers flow, you can supply 2000 workers per work day or even more. It is hard to setup such flow with buses.

You can freely exclude the following advantages:
1. End stations can be used to make buses refuel at certain locations, with a side benefit of line spacing.
3. At the moment, non-electric transport does not actually emit, and as such it doesn't pollute.

[Adil3tr]

Originally posted by Nokia 3310:

1. Trolleys do not have to leave their line for refuel. This is already enough to choose them over buses.
2. Trams also can move at full speed at winter. This is even more than enough to choose them over buses.
3. Electric transport does not pollute environment. This is a nice addition to 1 and 2.
4. You can join 2 trams together. This greatly increases workers flow, you can supply 2000 workers per work day or even more. It is hard to setup such flow with buses.

How do I stick trams together?

[Duke Flapjack]

Originally posted by Adil3tr:

Originally posted by Nokia 3310:

1. Trolleys do not have to leave their line for refuel. This is already enough to choose them over buses.
2. Trams also can move at full speed at winter. This is even more than enough to choose them over buses.
3. Electric transport does not pollute environment. This is a nice addition to 1 and 2.
4. You can join 2 trams together. This greatly increases workers flow, you can supply 2000 workers per work day or even more. It is hard to setup such flow with buses.

How do I stick trams together?

The same way you create a train with multiple locomotives: when you have multiple trams in the depot drag one from one line to the other.

[BanzaiCharge]

Originally posted by Adil3tr:

How do I stick trams together?

You build a train depot and connect it to you network with a railroad to tram road converter. Be aware that you need transformers for both the rail and the tram network.

[Adil3tr]

Originally posted by Duke Flapjack:

Originally posted by Adil3tr:

How do I stick trams together?

The same way you create a train with multiple locomotives: when you have multiple trams in the depot drag one from one line to the other.

Are we talking about trams on railroads, or trams on tram roads?

[Stele]

Trams on tram roads doesn't support multiple units as 0.8.85 goes.

[Adil3tr]

If trams are on railroads, do they need signalling? I simply don't use railroads because I have never been able to get signalling to work no matter how hard I try to work it out.

[Stele]

They do. On railroads they are just smaller EMUs.