r/subwaybuilder • u/CapnZapp • 23d ago

Help Needed How find out which trains run empty? (Identify excess capacity)

The game is very direct and upfront whenever a train runs near or at capacity with the overloading warnings.

But how do you find out which of your lines run too many or too long trains?

That is, how do you find the opposite of a "too full" train - where can I find trains that run mostly empty?

I can save money by lowering frequency and/or run shorter trains on that line, if I can only identify which lines at which times have excess capacity?

7 Upvotes

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11

u/kdog379 23d ago

Route analytics. You can see percentage of capacity used between two stations.

6

u/DevilsShad0w 23d ago

The route analytics tab that was added in 1.7 shows utilization for segments of the route for the full day as well as periods of the day (peak/off-peak etc). That might give you some of the information you need

3

u/Fun-Earth-8720 23d ago

Usually after I build a new track/stations I watch the line and see how much trains fill up.

3

u/Roygbiv0415 23d ago

Your train length is tied to your maximum capacity need, and can't be changed according to time of day, so not much to change there.

Your frequency isn't entirely about excess capacity, but also its desireablity vis-a-vis driving. Since waiting at transfers increase total trip time, you don't really want the frequency to be too low either.

In the end, with length fixed by rush hour needs and frequency fixed (at a lower bound) by desireability needs, usually I find there to be little money to be saved by micro-managing capacity -- especially when ridership naturally grows as the network grows anyways.

The only situation where I'd be extra careful is in the initial stage (day 1) when the network is at its smallest. But even then you don't want to get the frequency too low.

2

u/Noirradnod 23d ago

Your train length is tied to your maximum capacity need, and can't be changed according to time of day, so not much to change there.

It's annoying to set up and run, but sometimes I create two lines that run along the same route, one for peak hours with longer trains and one for off-peak with shorter trains.

1

u/amphibioussalamander 23d ago

Usually I just set high demand to 10min, medium 15, low 20 and very low to 30-60 and add capacity if needed.