Cities in Motion Scenario Walkthroughs

Trouble passing the CIM scenarios? This guide has step by step directions on completing them.

I - Introduction

Hello! Welcome to my guide for the scenarios of Cities in Motion. Right now this is a work in progress because I'm still playing the scenarios but I've completed 5 scenarios so far. In the introduction section, I'll explain my mindset in dealing with the scenarios so that my actions in the scenarios have a bit of context.

Also take note that you can do all the side quests if you want to get the achievements for doing all the tasks in a city. This guide is aimed only at having a good profit and completing the scenario. With the good profits and solid foundation that this guide will hopefully give you, feel free to deviate and do all the other tasks before completing the final task that ends the scenario.

The main thing that would-be mass transit engineers should take into account when designing new lines is that you should not be overly ambitious, trying to cover large portions of the city in the beginning often does not work and will just give you a lot of debt. Small upgrades or small lines are the way to go in my experience. Sometimes scenarios already have some small mass transit lines in place, upgrade these first with efficient buses and work off of them.

Another important thing to take note of is the location of residential areas, workplaces, and other transit systems such as railway stations. Having a line in a residential area is no good if it does not exit the area or does not connect to another line that exits the area. Remember to click the information tab and familiarize yourself with the town. All this stuff should've been mentioned in the tutorial section of Cities in Motion.


Take note of any avenues with grass in the middle. These are perfect for trams because they avoid the traffic. Trams are often elongated vehicles, if they are in traffic it's a bigger issue because of their length. They have a higher tendency of blocking an intersection if there is traffic. Also, I'm not sure which tram it was. But there is a tram that can get stuck if it stops in the middle of a corner.






This is the bus that I usually use for my pre-2000 bus routes. Maintenance is the cheapest and capacity isn't bad either. This is a DLC vehicle, part of the Cities in Motion: Design Now pack.
Stern-Berger Midi
Capacity: 20
Chance of Breakdown: 10%
Fuel Consumption: 12



This is usually the metro train I use. Maintenance is one of the cheapest and the capacity is also one of the biggest. Not sure if this is a DLC vehicle. I don't think it is.
Galaxie Berliner
Capacity: 94
Chance of Breakdown: 10%
Electricity Consumption: 80

As for boats, helicopters, and trams.. I don't really have a favorite one to use for those types of vehicles. I just pick whatever fits the situation more.

Anyway, with all that done, time to start the guide.

II - Berlin Scenario

First scenario you're given. You're given 20,000 to improve Berlin's mass transit system.

Objective 1 - Connect all 3 existing lines

Berlin is a dense urban city, there will be traffic congestion in some areas and stops are bound to have a lot of people.

Anyway, let's get started with putting the stations in place.


From the western most existing line, have a new line stop at one of the existing stops (so customers can transfer) and make it go eastward. Stop at the college, theater, amusement park / train station, department store, and the finally an existing stop in the middle line. This will ensure high occupancy when passing by these venues.



Step 1 completed.


Objective 1 complete. The second line we added is in white. You do not need 1 big line to connect all 3 existing lines.

Objective 2 - Build a tram line connecting a college, railway station, and theater

In this objective, try to utilize wide avenues as much as possible. Having trams in narrow streets is not good for traffic. Remember that you can build tram tracks off-road.


Avoided the narrow streets next to the theater by building the tram tracks off-road. Avoid congestion!


Tram lines set up. Now we wait. I had 2 trams running to begin with. You will have to add more trams eventually.

Objective 3 - Build a line to the amusement park

If you followed my direction from above, you should already have a stop by the amusement park. Easy objective. Take the time to maintain your routes and see if any lines are over capacity.

Objective 4 - Save 15,000 money

At this point, I was making almost 1,000 a month. We play the waiting game here..

Objective 5 - Build a metro line from the college to the police station

For this objective, let's start from the college. Build a metro stop there and gradually work your way south. Don't attempt to built the entire line in one go. That's incredibly expensive. Of course you can go for the elevated metro but for this walkthrough let's assume you'll use the underground one.


This is how I did it:
1st stop was the college
2nd stop was infront of the train station
3rd stop was the theater
4th stop was another college
5th stop was a residential area
6th stop was the police station

Objective 6 - Have 80% repuation

This one is fairly easy. Just run advertisement campaigns. At this point in the game I had a 72% reputation already.

Objective 7 - Build 10 new stops. Buy 4 new vehicles

This one is open ended. You should be making a lot of money at this point already so feel free to put these lines anywhere.


This is what I did. I just had an extra bus line. The subway counted for some of the 10 stops and 4 vehicles already.

Objective 8 - Transport 120 passengers. Have 15,000 money.

Just the waiting game here. This is actually the final objective I think. At least it was for me.

Objective 9 - Have a tram or bus line connect with a metro line

This should be fairly easy. I already had this right off the bat. If you built your systems in a smart way, you would've already interconnected the different lines together.

III - Amsterdam Scenario

The second scenario in the game. In this scenario you're given 24,000 to start the Amsterdam mass transit system from scratch.
An important thing to note is that in the late part of the scenario, the last objective is to have a well maintained fleet. So it'd be wise to choose vehicles that have the smallest chance of breakdowns and increase the money you spend on vehicle maintenance. I started off with bus maintenance at 70%, a 20% improvement from default. That usually gets a good enough job done. The goal is 70% maintenance for all vehicles anyway.

Objective 1 - Build 2 Bus Lines

I built my first two bus lines in the more dense parts of the map.
When placing my bus stops, I placed them at alternate sides of the residential area so to maximize stops on each site.



As you can see in the picture above, each side can get equal amount of stops and at the same time avoid placing too many stops that are within range of each other. This helps minimize maintenance of transit stops.



Objective 1 completed.
These bus stops go through residential areas only but they're important in transporting people to stops that would transport them in and out of the city.

Objective 2 - Build a tram line that connects the small airport terminal

For this objective, I took a route that took into account future airport expansions. Just a little detour.
Besides that, the tram stops are situated to be close to future bus stops so that bus passengers can easily transfer to the tram lines.


This is an example of one of the stops that are nicely situated. As you can see the range of the tram stop takes into account an intersection and a church. This allows for maximum coverage. Another stop in this tram line also stops at the factories, I designated this area to be an exchange point since it's a straight street right into the city center.
This village is as far as I went with the tram line. Remember to not be overly ambitious.

Objective 3 - Build 2 water bus lines and transport 25 passengers

Don't build too many water bus stations with this. Water bus stations are relatively expensive and can drain your remaining funds. Build a max of 5 stops with one water bus for each of the 2 lines. I just had a water bus go clockwise while the other water bus line go counter-clockwise. Opt for the cheapest waterbus for now, these things give a lot of profit but are really expensive.
Preferrably, build these water bus stops next to future bus stops because that would be related to our next objective.

Disregard the extra bus route I put in the southern area of Amsterdam. That was to fulfill another request, I only put up the 2 required stops and then deleted it afterwards. I forgot to delete the line when I took the screencap.
I had a stop at the industrial area infront of the railway station and another stop that was further south. The route lines were just blocking it.
At this point I was making about 50-100 profit per month even with bus maintenance set to 70%.
Remember you can change the fares in order to gain more profit.

Objective 4 - Build 2 lines that can connect to the water bus lines

For this objective, I started to build lines that would transport from outskirts of Amsterdam and bring them to the city center. If you set up your water bus stops right, this objective would also be done quite quickly.

When I build the 2 routes, I made sure to cut right through the 2 outer islands of Amsterdam and I made stops on each island as seen below.



The first 2 lines we made can now feed into this line and bring passengers into the city center and out of the city center now.



This is an example of a nice location of a water bus stop. It's within range of several bus lines, including the 2 new lines I just built.
It passes by Line 1 which is one of the first lines we built that focused on this particular residential district, and it's within range of the new line I just built that brings people from the outskirts to the city center. All sorts of goodness!


You can see I built a line that went from the factories in the south to the southern part of the city center. I also built another line from the eastern outskirts starting at the hospital and then looping back into the eastern part of the city center city.

Objective 5 - Connecting Koninklijk Palace and a random apartment to a tram line

The location of the apartment is always random in this one. So it will be different from playthrough to playthrough. In my playthrough it popped up on one of the outer islands. *sigh*
Trams on narrow streets and having to cross through the narrow bridges which will soon be congested with traffic. A bad idea in my opinion - this apartment will only be a temporary stop.


Might as well hit 2 birds with one stone with this, huh?

I made an actual legitimate tram line in the middle of the city center using the wide 2 lane streets and I added this as a temporary stop just to fulfill the required goals.


The final tram layout in the city center.
Avoid building too many trams here because at this point in the game congestion is getting really bad.

Objective 6 - Build a water bus line to a certain apartment.

For me, I got it right off the bad. It was the housing in the north so I didn't have to change anything. If it's somewhere else in your playthrough remember to not go crazy on the expensive water bus stops.

Objective 7 - Have at least 3 lines going connecting the small airport terminal

Anyway, at this point, I'm making 1,000 a month in profits. This includes some raises in fares but they're not expensive. Bus fare is 4.00, tram is 4.50, boat is 6.50.

I decide to maintain a couple lines, seeing if the buses are overloaded with too many unhappy customers waiting at the stops.

Now at this point, I'll build 2 bus lines to the airport which will make the total amount of lines to the airport 3. When building the bus stop at the airport terminal, make sure the building is at least orange. Build the bus stop on the left side of the road, just before the u-turn because the airport terminal is far away.



Just in range.


Here I build another bus line that doesn't connect with the airport, but it makes the new bus airport line useful because it allows passengers to transfer to a line that can bring them to the city center.


The final product. The final bus line went through a village and ended up in the factory where they can also transfer to a line that brings them into the city.

Objective 8 - Have at least 15,000 in cash

It's just a waiting game at this point. Or you can take a loan. I was making 600 profit per month at this point.

Objective 9 - Transport 120 passengers and have no vehicle under 70% condition

If you increased repairs to 70% early, this is fast.

IV - Vienna Scenario

For the Vienna scenario, you're given 18,000 to revive and modernize the Vienna mass transit system.

Objective 1 - Build a Metro between a college and a residential district

Okay, starting off with a new metro line right off the bat isn't one of the best things to do here. Multiple playthroughs have proved it to be unprofitable for me. Save this quest for later and spend your money upgrading the existing lines by modernizing the vehicles and creating a bus line that connects these lines. The route with the most passengers seem to be the routes that cross different islands. Make your own routes here and try to increase profitability. Remember, don't be too ambitious yet.

Here's a line I made that connected the railway depot on one of the small islands in the middle.


If you noticed, there is a wide street surrounding the city center and some of it even has grass in the middle! Take advantage of this and build a tram line.

Objective 2 - Build a line between railway station and villa

Use a bus line to build a line between these things. Try to have at least one stop within range of the tram station so that this line can also be connected to the main transit system thus increasing the passenger rate. Seen below is one of the stops connecting with the tram. You can also see the jist of the highlighted route used through the residential district of Vienna.

Objective 3 - Build and use 4 luxury tram stops

For this objective, I just used the same tram route that I built earlier that surrounds the city. I just had a line going the opposite way instead.

After this, I built a bus line that completed the objective "Party City!"
I was making about 900 profit per month at this point and had some money to spend.

Objective 4 - Build a line exclusively for the Espen 1 trams

This is a simple one too. You disable a line and replace all the trams with this Espen 1 tram then enable it again.

Objective 5 - Build a line to the cinema

I had this right off the bat because of my earlier line that dealt with party city.
Hit 2 birds with one stone and complete that objective and this one.
You can have your own stops, but I suggest at least having these stops:

• Railway Depot
  
• College
  
• Hospital
  
• Cinema
  
• Dorm

Objective 6 - Build a new metro line and transport 40 passengers on it

Okay, now we concentrate on the metro underground from the first objective because we're making a lot of money at this point. I'm making about 900 per month with no loan debt!

Though maybe now can be the time for a loan because our company value will allow us to have a bigger loan to have a proper metro line. I go for the 5 year loans and I try to make my monthly payments about 300.

Start your metro line at the railway depot in the north and then go west to the college. The railway depot is a high volume stop. Guaranteed to get a lot of customers.

On the way south, make a metro stop that's near the existing tram and bus stops so that it can act as a big transfer point. There are 2 of these stops here. Here's my progress below. The subway line is in white on the minimap.


I realized I didn't have a picture of a minimap to show the lines I have so far. So here's a closer look at my minimap and the progress I have.


After the 2 stops at the transit hubs. It's just a straight shot down south to your goal.

Objective 7 - Build a metro line to the amusement park

Just wait for the money to roll in to fund this. Read stuff on the Steam browser to pass the time or something. Anyway, after that just build a line to the amusement park. Though for me I opted for functionality as well, building a line to the railway depot first and then the amusement park afterwards.

This is what my network looked like after this objective was done.

Objective 8 - Have 20% repuation with students

You should be close to this objective at this point because of our lines that connect to the college. Focus on advertising campaigns that attract students.

Objective 9 - Have 50,000 money

Just save up for this or if this is your last goal you have to do. Just get a loan big enough to cover any debt you have.

Objective 10 - Build a line to an office building

Simple objective here. Just build a connecting line. I built mine from the railway depot to the office building. Buy the Stern-Berger buses. It will hit 2 birds with one stone.

Objective 11 - Buy 3 Stern-Berger 1200 buses

See above.

I'm making more than 1,000 a month and here's what I have by the end of this:



All objectives are done after this. I just took a loan for the 50,000 and finished the scenario.

V - Berlin Revisited

You're given 40,000 to revitalize Berlin's transport system during the Cold War.
Even though the wall is there and in real life it was almost impossible to pass it, it's quite easy to pass it in this scenario. This is one of the easiest scenarios.

Things to note:

• Buses can't go through the Berlin Wall
  
• Metro lines can go underneath the wall, thus connecting them
  
• 40,000 is a lot of money, but don't get excited and build everything from the start

Objective 1 - Cover 50% of the city with mass transit

You see some bus lines in the top there. Finish the loop as seen below. Remember that there's the wall right between them, so you'll have to make 2 seperate closed loops.

Here, we close one of the 2 bus routes. We'll connect this to the network eventually.

As for the Subway, the construction below is already in place with some gaps due to the wall and you already have some metro trains ready too. Just work with these lines. Do not try to expand the metro and build new stations until you have a steady income. Just fix the gaps in the metro. Set up basic metro lines that cover all the stations then concentrate on building bus lines first to transport people to the metro line.

Below is the finish metro line and the highlighted route is one of my metro line I use.



But remember to build bus lines to bring people to these metro stops. Below is an example of what I've done:


At this point I profit around 1,000 per month even with maintenance set at 70% for all types of vehicles. Not bad. I also currently cover 9% of the city. Let's continue.
At this point it's more free flowing, but my suggestion for now is to build routes that bring people to the metro. Upgrade the metro trains to handle increased capacity. Then after all that is done, you can think of expanding the metro line and build more stations. You can take your time with this one.

Below is an example of my transit nextwork which is not complete:

Objective 2 - Have a reputation of 80

This is an easy one. Just do advertising campaigns.

Objective 3 - Transport a total of 1,000 passengers using all your lines

This is the end-game objective. It's a very easy one at that. You don't even need to have the other objectives finished for this one actually...

VI - The Heiress of Helsinki

You're given 40,000 to revitalize the transit system of Helsinki.

Initial traffic in this level gets really bad, so try focusing on trams or metros first before the cheaper buses. What's the use of buses if they can't move? :)

Objective 1 - Connect small airport, city hall, and department store to a metro line

Expand the subway further south so it can connect to the southern suburb area.
Expand it eastward to the carnival.
Expand is westward towards the apartment buildings west of the city center but also take into account the department store which is a goal. (Personally, I didn't connect it, but still finished the scenario)


Above, you can see the route I took in the minimap and where I placed the metro station near the carnival.
Traffic in this map gets really bad with buses so I opted to use trams and metro at the start.



Above, you can see the tram route I used and how I looped it around the office area up north. This tram is important in the beginning because it bypasses a lot of the congestion and traffic.


Just keep expanding metro lines. They're extremely profitable in this scenario due to the traffic in the roads here.


I went very slowly here. It was until 1995 when I concentrated on other objectives but it laid the foundation for good profits in which you can easily spend on other goals.


The end product of my initial expansion. You should be able to get good profits from this now.

Objective 2 - Build a metro line that connects to the amusement park

This should've been done already.

Objective 3 - Buy 3 Stern-Berger Duppel buses and use them on a line

Pretty easy. Just build a route at this point. You should be able to have enough experience to see where to put it down. Just make sure to build a route that feeds into your metro line.

Objective 4 - Build a water bus line AND have 2 Donau Caravel ships

With the profits I have at this point which was 2,800 a month, I'm making good money. I just built a simple water bus route here. Use the Donau Caravel ships, they are a separate goal, but you can hit 2 birds and one stone here.

Objective 5 - Build a tram line

At this point I was satisfied and having another tram line built in this congestion would be no good. I just cheated and built a simple line on my existing tram tracks then deleted it instantly after I got the goal.

Objective 6 - Build a line to detached house

Just use a bus line.

Objective 7 - Build 3 new lines

Bus lines are the fastest to build and our metro is sprawling at this point. Just expand on bus lines now and feed it into the metro.

COMPLETING THIS OBJECTIVE WILL FINISH THE SCENARIO.

Update Log

June 26, 2013 - Berlin and Amsterdam scenario published.
June 27, 2013 - Vienna scenario published.
July 2, 2013 - Berlin Revisited scenario published.
September 20, 2013 - Helsinki Heiress scenario published.

[Haperski]

2024 here.
How the heck do you do the 'New Tram Line' objective #2 in Berlin Scenario #1 campaign ?
The tram line itself is accepted but the transport 50 people don't even progress even one !
I have 8 trams running, always full seat.

I think i have the same problem back when the game first came out, hence I don't have the achievement for completing the campaigns.

[eXistenZ]

I call absolute bullshit. 1000/ month after 3 missions in the first chapter....

[punkadiddle]

thanks
now i know i have been spoiling students by giving them a metro from early on. now they will made to walk to a bus stop. nice guide well done

[[TLK] Esparko]

@donaldwal

The tram stop is on the roadside.

[Diziet Embless Sma]

Highlighted exactly where I was going oh so so wrong. Thank you!

[dwtrains_nz]

Ok sweet cheers. O and one other thing that tram stop by the railway station on the first Berlin scenario, is it on the roadside or in the carpark?

[[TLK] Esparko]

Hey, sorry.

I'm still out of the country on vacation so I don't have access to my desktop :)
I get back on September 17th and I'll continue writing this.

[dwtrains_nz]

Hay hows the section on the dlc coming along? I'm having quite a bit of trouble trying to complete the munich scenario.

[mmmcheesywaffles]

This Guide just keeps on improving. Well done!

[[TLK] Esparko]

Hm, perhaps. Though I guess what I can suggest for now is enlarge the picture if you haven't?
If you did enlarge it, then just try cross-referencing the mini-map with what you see in the pictures, I kept the minimap + the game view untouched in some cases so you can see where I'm looking at the minimap and then perhaps look for visual landmarks (certain unique buildings, certain intersections, etc).