Interchange demand
Passengers choose an itinerary over the services you have actually timetabled. They may board or alight at any calling point and can make up to two timed changes at shared stations.
A connection only works when the onward departure is still available after the minimum five-minute change time. Cancelled legs return affected passengers to the last station reached so they can replan.
Operator tip
A useful hub can strengthen several routes at once, but only if the services are reliable enough for passengers to trust the connection.
Station congestion
The game estimates service intensity from the frequencies of all routes serving each station. At roughly six or more trains per hour, a station begins to create congestion pressure.
Congestion increases operating cost and reduces reliability. The penalty grows with the number of exposed stations and the amount by which service intensity exceeds the threshold.
Watch out
Adding frequency at a shared hub can improve convenience and simultaneously make every route through it less reliable.
Home depots and positioning
Every trainset has a home depot. If that depot is not on a route when you assign the train, the company pays a positioning charge based on distance.
Available stock can be rebased from the fleet page. Rebase deliberately when a train will work repeatedly in another part of the network; avoid paying to move it back and forth for short-term changes.
A balanced network
- Use shared stations to create meaningful interchange.
- Avoid concentrating every high-frequency route at one constrained hub.
- Base spares where they can reach several routes cheaply.
- Consider station pressure before tightening a timetable.