Subway vs Trains

[Akaran "Deadman" DeHawk]

Question re: subways vs trains:
How are you guys using subways in your city layouts - and how do they stack up against trains? And let me preface this with the statement that I'm not great at aesthetics, but I prefer doing min/max and heavy optimization in my builds as long as it's 'reasonably' realistic.

That said, I'm a train guy. I love developing train networks (and the new stations in CS2 today look great) but I honestly put subways off until late in city development (200k+ pop or so) because in CS2, they don't seem to offer much more than what train stations do for transit.

With the new overground subway stations though, I'm wondering if I need to change that. To me, an overground subway station defeats the point of having a subway - it's literally just a rail system. However, the look is utterly amazing, and I want to use them in my builds where I can.

In CS1, I aggressively developed transportation hubs that linked monorail, subway, and rail. In 2, without monorail, I haven't seen the need to make that much effort.

That said, and from what I can tell, on a purely game-mechanic level, the only real advantages trains offer over subways is the ability to carry cargo and to connect to the outside world. They also offer additional platforms per station, which is useful.

Conversely, the only perk that subways offer over rail are smaller footprints for stations in metro areas. Aside from that, they seem to have significantly less utility.

Am I wrong? Is there a major reason to use subways over rails, or is it just personal preference?

I don't see a difference with anything else. I am disappointed that we don't have dedicated subway hubs yet with crossing platforms but I can only hope it'll be in future updates.

[Aieonae]

I let this picture do the illustration

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3375576408

Technically you are not wrong, a smaller footprint actually results in more ease of distribution for subway.

Second to train vs subway, train is more multi-role versatility per train rail laid, while subway incentives more towards just passenger carrying.

In fact, with recent updates it actually can outpace buses surprises me.

I do have my experimental observations city upload for better understanding feel free to look for Al Zeeta and Medicine for Al Zeeta.

[Akaran "Deadman" DeHawk]

So, effectively - from a game mechanics standpoint - it's more a case of citizens prefer subways to trains as a transportation method in general? I absolutely detest some of the traffic modeling in this game so I'll take anything that'll decrease car loads.

If that's the case, then cool. I'll start using overground subways in lieu of trains and limit my trains to just a couple of hubs, cargo, and map connections.

Originally posted by Aieonae:

I let this picture do the illustration

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3375576408

Technically you are not wrong, a smaller footprint actually results in more ease of distribution for subway.

Second to train vs subway, train is more multi-role versatility per train rail laid, while subway incentives more towards just passenger carrying.

In fact, with recent updates it actually can outpace buses surprises me.

I do have my experimental observations city upload for better understanding feel free to look for Al Zeeta and Medicine for Al Zeeta.

[john.glossop]

I think of it this way. Using a subway is very useful in built up areas, because of its small footprint )a subway station takes up little space if it is a direct underground connection.
The train is great for moving people longer distances, but less practical than subway for intra-city routes.
I use subways between my residential / service area, and my industrial areas. I use trains for inter-city routes.

[Aieonae]

Originally posted by Akaran "Deadman" DeHawk:

So, effectively - from a game mechanics standpoint - it's more a case of citizens prefer subways to trains as a transportation method in general? I absolutely detest some of the traffic modeling in this game so I'll take anything that'll decrease car loads.

If that's the case, then cool. I'll start using overground subways in lieu of trains and limit my trains to just a couple of hubs, cargo, and map connections.

Originally posted by Aieonae:

I let this picture do the illustration...

Given the choice I did just built both for these residents as supposedly every little bit helps as an alternative to road traffic without the huge footprint. A tip elevated subway station on a medium road might be a go to if you are not use to underground building.

Originally posted by john.glossop:

I think of it this way. Using a subway is very useful in built up areas, because of its small footprint )a subway station takes up little space if it is a direct underground connection.
The train is great for moving people longer distances, but less practical than subway for intra-city routes.
I use subways between my residential / service area, and my industrial areas. I use trains for inter-city routes.

Yeap I think you catch my drift better of my original intent, nevertheless to see that much in contest in numbers for these 2 mode of transportation actually surprises me no less.

[sethtriggs]

I like to use subways as a corridor for high-density transit-oriented development, connecting to the city center and industrial centers. The new bus station assets will help for feeding bus lines to the subway system. I also like to use subways to feed the tram lines too.

I also like to use trains for their similarly huge capacity to serve various neighborhood centers away from the city center. You can also directly tie the train stations (at least the large one) into the subway system for extra transfer bonuses.

And definitely use train lines for your cargo, making an internal line as well to serve the different cargo terminals. This will help reduce a lot of traffic.

Has been working pretty well in my city, I'm up to 962K population vanilla and the city's maxed on money. Right now trying to fix the unemployment issue that came from rebalancing and bugfixes.