I'm having real problems making a profit in the very first campaign scenario (Berlin Foundations). I've pretty much tried everything I can think of including increasing tickets prices to maximum, reducing wages to minimum, lowering maintenance% , literally everything. But nothing works.
So, far I've transported over 3,000 people, my stops are clogged with passengers (over 100 waiting at some stops), and my buses and trams are running absolutely full for pretty much their entire routes. I've tried squeezing more vehciles on the lines to the point where two or three buses are waiting at every stop, and still they can't cope with demand, but continue to return a loss.
The only thing I can think of now is that my lines are too long. From what I can see people only pay for a ticket when they get on a vehicle, and it's a fixed price just to get on rather than how far they are going. So, lets say I have a bus line with 10 stops and the ticket prices is £5. That means a passenger at the first stop can pay £5 for a seat and travel right to the other end of the line occupying that seat without paying any more money.
So, if 10 people board the bus at the first stop and stay on it I only get £50 for the entire journey from stop 1 to stop 10, but pick up fuel and wage expenses for the entire journey based on time and distance. It also means that the bus is full and can't pick up any passengers from stops 2 thru 9 even if there are hundred's waiting. So thats a huge loss of income and reputation for no additional benefit.
I'm wondering if thats the source of my problem because I do have buses and trams that are almost permanently full, suggesting that a lot of people are just boarding buying a ticket and sitting there for a prolonged ride.
If I were to break these lines down into small segments, e.g. five lines of two stops, instead of 1 line of 10 stops, will this increase my income?
In theory it would force passengers to disembark at every stop on the route and allow ten more passengers to board and pay for a ticket. Therefore given my 10 stop scenario if ten passengers really wanted to travel to the other end of the line they would need to change buses 8 times and buy 9 tickets at a total cost of £45. Just wondering if thats the trick to making money in this game.
So, far I've transported over 3,000 people, my stops are clogged with passengers (over 100 waiting at some stops), and my buses and trams are running absolutely full for pretty much their entire routes. I've tried squeezing more vehciles on the lines to the point where two or three buses are waiting at every stop, and still they can't cope with demand, but continue to return a loss.
The only thing I can think of now is that my lines are too long. From what I can see people only pay for a ticket when they get on a vehicle, and it's a fixed price just to get on rather than how far they are going. So, lets say I have a bus line with 10 stops and the ticket prices is £5. That means a passenger at the first stop can pay £5 for a seat and travel right to the other end of the line occupying that seat without paying any more money.
So, if 10 people board the bus at the first stop and stay on it I only get £50 for the entire journey from stop 1 to stop 10, but pick up fuel and wage expenses for the entire journey based on time and distance. It also means that the bus is full and can't pick up any passengers from stops 2 thru 9 even if there are hundred's waiting. So thats a huge loss of income and reputation for no additional benefit.
I'm wondering if thats the source of my problem because I do have buses and trams that are almost permanently full, suggesting that a lot of people are just boarding buying a ticket and sitting there for a prolonged ride.
If I were to break these lines down into small segments, e.g. five lines of two stops, instead of 1 line of 10 stops, will this increase my income?
In theory it would force passengers to disembark at every stop on the route and allow ten more passengers to board and pay for a ticket. Therefore given my 10 stop scenario if ten passengers really wanted to travel to the other end of the line they would need to change buses 8 times and buy 9 tickets at a total cost of £45. Just wondering if thats the trick to making money in this game.
