Small City
This level adds two type of trains -- one that can help the city's products get to market. But before we delve into the railways, let's make that bus line.
The city currently has 2 percent unemployment. No lazy folks around here. But while we need more residential areas, we also have plenty of traffic here and there. A well routed bus line can help alleviate that.
BUSES
First we need a bus station. It can be most anywhere but a wide main road is a good place to start looking.
Place your station along your road. Next choose the bus stop tool to add stops along the way. The first step is to create the new line. The dots that appear are dictated in part by the game but you can move your cursor around to make a route that you believe will work for your citizens. Remember that your bus stops will all be on the right hand side of the road (for US folks anyway).
Bus routes MUST be circular -- coming back to their origin point. I moved the bus stop over a bit from my first screenshot so that it would be in front of the station --- or at least closer. My station is a bio-diesel station. The making of the line works exactly the same way. Your bus will likely be red; mine are blue.
The bus route is outlined in blue. It covers a god portion of the city and goes to all three industrial areas as well as many residential and commercial area. Those red dots with guys in hard hats are icons saying that there are not enough workers. After completing this bus route I made two more large housing developments.
You can have several bus routes coming from one station. The number of buses is determined by the budget so adjust that to get the amount of coverage you need. I have seven for this line. Bus routes are especially good in college areas.
Get your folks riding the buses. There is an option for free bus service if you so choose. Find it policies.
ELEVATED ROADS - OVERPASSES
The ability to have one road go over another is extremely helpful. The making of these roads is a bit tricky so practice is needed. Then again YOU might be an excellent elevated road maker.
Products need a way to be shipped outside the city -- one with a short distance via truck. This cuts down traffic and helps the industries stay profitable.
The area in the northwest corner of the 10,000 population city was a good spot to make a truck route. One that would go over the freeway and into the next area to be developed; one with a train station.
In order to make the unplanned road I needed to do a bit of demolition work.
Elevated roads need some length to get started with the elevation. So I took out a section of road in front of the eldercare facility (right with red roof). I also needed to demolish the street that connected perpendicularly.
OK. Here are the steps.
Start dragging for your road (in this case right to left). Once you have started use the Page Up key to elevate the road (NOT the one in the numpad).
You need to make the road in steps. The screenshot above shows the first step.
Next drag a small section to the other freeway lanes.
The plan for this road was to connect two farming districts giving them both access to the railway.
In order to complete the road a second elevated section needed to be made to span the railroad.
You CAN run a road across the tracks but this causes a stop for both traffic and the engine, so an overpass is a much better solution.
The new road called for some zoning changes as well as some small changes in road construction.
I moved the Eldercare building, removed the zoning on the way to the overpass and changed the previously residential zone across the street from the Eldercare Center to commercial. I also made the commercial area anti high rise.
Those are wide roads for a residential cluster but they will be made into high density housing later on in the city's growth.
While not the most posh area of town, the seniors DO have a nice river view with a park next door and some trees to help block out the sound. Then again, many of them probably don't hear all that well anyway. That works.
TRAINS
There are two types of trains to choose from -- cargo and passenger. To get products to customers far away we need a cargo depot.
Trains are very easy to place. Picking a good spot is the most difficult part of the process.
A train station needs to be placed on a road of course and since this is bound to be a busy area, it is a six lane road. Once the station is in place choose the tracks tool (there are two way and one way tracks) and draw tracks in the same manner you would make a road. I used the "curved" option here to make the tracks a bit more elegant.
Lots of room to grow in the next area to be developed. The turbine is temporary and there will be a commercial area near the station. Right now though we need more of a city with both residential and industrial areas as well as services.
Up next, Big City.