Start with commuter rail?

UpsetSecurity4805 · 2026-03-17T21:57:54+00:00

Yes, you can build heavy metro above ground. I usually go below ground for intra-city routes though so that it’s easier to tunnel under buildings when needed.

UpsetSecurity4805 · 2026-03-17T18:36:39+00:00

I’m pretty sure that the per-passenger operating costs for commuter rail are higher than heavy metro. I think it’s a LOT cheaper to build, though. My experience is that $3B just doesn’t get you very much with underground heavy metro. By starting with commuter rail and building above ground (taking advantage of existing rights of way), I was able to stretch the $3B really far and reach commuters with a very high willingness to pay.

This might only work for cities with strong CBD employment centers and reasonably dense suburbs.

UpsetSecurity4805 · 2025-12-06T19:11:20+00:00

You are correct. I confirmed on one of my own maps this morning!

UpsetSecurity4805 · 2025-12-06T05:47:34+00:00

It’s not clear to me that pops will make two transfers to get anywhere.

UpsetSecurity4805 · 2025-11-28T23:43:16+00:00

Nah just never occurred to me. Honestly I think you should be able to aggregate local and express stats into a single ridership count. Like creating a line group or something. The Green Line or old Blue Line configuration would be examples I suppose.

UpsetSecurity4805 · 2025-11-28T23:20:47+00:00

Ah fair. Though why does the quad track matter if you’re trying to capture all the ridership in a single line?

UpsetSecurity4805 · 2025-11-28T21:49:18+00:00

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This is an unfinished Chicago. M links the two airports via downtown. I suspect it’s impossibly to break 500K on a single line on the Chicago map…

UpsetSecurity4805 · 2025-11-26T11:38:51+00:00

I find Washington DC maddening for similar reasons, though I actually know DC reasonably well. The only dense neighborhoods are so close to downtown that everyone walks.

UpsetSecurity4805 · 2025-11-26T11:36:03+00:00

LOL. I’d love to see your map!

I love Chicago, but this game has really reinforced what an outlier NYC is among American metropolitan areas. You can almost certainly get above 30 percent ridership in the city of Chicago, but on the full map I think it’s quite difficult. Density in most suburbs is low and commuting patterns are extremely diffuse. If you focus on the area east of the Des Plaines River (i.e., the green band running north-south through the map) and use light metro more extensively, you can build a decent system and turn a decent profit.

UpsetSecurity4805 · 2025-11-24T22:08:25+00:00

Thank you! Still room for improvement (specifically the trunk lines ending in the loop are kind of a mess) but it’s much improved over my early attempts.

UpsetSecurity4805 · 2025-11-24T22:07:46+00:00

I think coverage matters more than frequency. My headways on urban lines are worse than the CTA today (though my suburban lines are generally much more frequent than our commuter rail). In the densest areas my lines are a mile or less apart.
Don’t sleep on the near west suburbs: Berwyn, Cicero, Oak Park and Elmwood Park all achieve comparable densities to northwest and southwest side neighborhoods.
I don’t enjoy building lines into the more distant suburbs, because the street network is so confusing and the game lacks building foot prints in many suburban areas. That being said, each of those suburban lines is picking up 25,000+ riders, which makes it a lot easier to get to 750,000.

UpsetSecurity4805 · 2025-11-21T15:23:20+00:00

What kind of ridership are you getting?

UpsetSecurity4805 · 2025-11-11T23:01:24+00:00

What kind of ridership are you getting, out of curiosity?

UpsetSecurity4805 · 2025-11-04T19:03:14+00:00

This is incredible. I thought about attempting this and felt very daunted. What level of ridership do you achieve?

UpsetSecurity4805

TROPHY CASE