Transport

Freight lines#

A line is your vehicles running between two of your places by one mode, road or rail. Lines are the only way goods reach storage or leave it (apart from selling). Open Lines (L), then + New line, Road or Rail, where it loads, then where it delivers; the list offers the nearest places first, of those that can take something the first holds. Each line's + buys another vehicle, − sells one. While the panel is open, your lines are drawn over the map as ribbons.

road

Truck

Price

$45,000; sells back for $22,500

Running cost

$150 a game day

Carries

200 units of one good

Between

a site, factory or storage and a factory or storage, up to 30 km apart as the crow flies

Speed

55% of each road's limit, in real seconds at 1x (about 21 km/h across a city)

Loading

0.5 game hour each end (5 s at 1x)

Per unit of room

$225 to buy, $0.75 a day

rail

Train

Price

$600,000; sells back for $300,000

Running cost

$1,500 a game day

Carries

1,200 units: a locomotive and 10 wagons of 120, 190 m long

Between

two rail yards (a Rail warehouse or Freight yard) up to 60 km apart

Speed

70% of each line's limit (56 km/h where it is not tagged)

Loading

2 game hours each end (20 s at 1x)

Per unit of room

$500 to buy, $1.25 a day

How a vehicle works a line#

• Waiting at the loading end, it takes the good there is most of that the far end has room for, at least a quarter load (unless the far end has room for less).
• It loads, sets off, and at the far end puts in what fits. The rest rides back to where it was loaded.
• What fits at neither end stays on board, and the vehicle waits with it until either end has room.
• Nothing is carried into a field. Fields only load.
• Selling a vehicle returns half its price, its load going back where it came from (refused while there is no room for it there). Taking a place down sells its vehicles.

Trucks#

• Between a field, factory or storage and a factory or storage, up to 30 km apart as the crow flies.
• Routed over the real roads; the game drives it through the traffic in your colour.
• It drives at 55% of each road's limit, in real seconds at 1x: about 21 km/h across a city like Manchester. An 8 km trip is about 22 minutes of driving, plus 0.5 game hour loading at the bay and the same unloading.
• Standing, trucks park at a storage's loading bays, in a row at the edge of a field, or backed up to a factory's wall.

Trains#

• Between two rail yards: a Rail warehouse (dry goods) or a Freight yard (bulk, grain, timber, liquids and yard goods), up to 60 km apart.
• A rail yard has to stand within 30 m of a running line (not a tram, metro or funicular, nor in a tunnel): its sidings join it there.
• A train is a locomotive and 10 wagons of 120: 1,200 units, 190 m long, in your colour, with the wagons its load needs (hoppers, tanks, log wagons, flats or vans).
• It runs at 70% of each line's limit (56 km/h where the map does not say), and loads and unloads for 2 game hours each end. A 60 km line takes about an hour at 1x.

Keeping trains apart#

Trains run on the real railway, and the server keeps them safe:

• Blocks. The line is cut into blocks at switches, signals and ends. A train holds the blocks it is in and reserves the next as it needs it; a train behind is held at the signal a block back.
• Right of way. A train comes onto the line only when no train is on any of its route the other way, so trains never meet head-on on single track. It waits in its yard until the line is clear.
• Crossings. Where two lines cross on the level, only one train is on the crossing at a time.
• Switches. A route never reverses through a switch; trains turn round only in yards.
• At a yard a train stands on the line beside it to load or unload (the sidings are shorter than a train), holding its blocks. Only a train waiting for a load or for the line waits in the sidings.
• Signals on a train's way show it: red where the block beyond is held, amber where the one after is, else green.

Trips, clocks and the world's speed#

Driving is in real seconds at 1x, as the game's own traffic drives; at the server's faster speeds everything runs faster, trucks and trains too. Loading and unloading are game hours (10 s each at 1x).

See also#

• Vehicles & lines: every number for trucks and trains.
• Storage: what each storage keeps, and which are rail yards.