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Once again we are back with yet another development diary for Cities: Skylines. This time we are going to get a glimpse of the public transport options in your future cities.

If you want to refresh your memory about the previous dev diaries, check here: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?802652-Cities-Skylines-dev-diary-archive

Working on public transport in Cities: Skylines we wanted to offer a variety of choices for the players to set up their public transport network while still keeping in mind that Cities: Skylines is first and foremost a city builder game rather than a transport simulator. Our goal was to implement the feature in so that it would be easy to use, following in suit with the rest of the features while still being robust enough to make it interesting and strategically sound. The fans of Cities in Motion games had always wanted to build rail networks and airports to control the intercity traffic but the scope of those games was always within the city limits. However, with Cities: Skylines' goods transport and citizens moving in and out of the city, we felt that it was a good time to bring in the intercity traffic possibilities to public transport.

Public transport types
Cities: Skylines features several modes of public transport. You can set up a bus network, dig metro tunnels, lay down tracks for passenger and cargo trains, build both passenger and cargo terminals for ships and build an airpot. Bus and metro network is for inner city transport while train network can service both inner city and intercity needs (both, passenger and cargo trains!). The harbors and the airport service intercity connections.

Bus transport
The bus transport is the first, low-cost choice for public transport. There are two structures required for it to work: the bus depot and bus stops. The bus depot works as the storage space for the buses in the city and when setting up new bus routes you can see the buses leaving the depot for their designated routes. Adjusting the budget for buses causes more (or less) buses to appear on the routes. One bus depot can service the whole city but a placing more than one in strategic places around the city can shorten the time when new buses reach their routes since they don't have to drive through the whole city to get there.

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The bus depot.

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A bus stop in the suburbs.

Metro
Metro is an efficient transport mode to move a lot of people fast. However, its downside is the high building cost since the player needs to build both the metro entrances (stations) as well as the underground tracks. Underground track building is done in a special view mode where the tracks and stations are highlighted. This mode also highlights the other public transport buildings, tracks and routes which makes planning of the network easier.

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A metro entrance near the center of the city.

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Inspecting the metro line in the special public transport info view mode.

Trains
Trains are divided into passenger and cargo trains. Both trains have their own terminals that the player can build in the city. The player can use the train network in two different ways:
1) If they only build the terminals and connect the train tracks to the outside connecting train tracks found on the map, the terminals will service intercity traffic, importing and exporting cargo and passengers (tourists).
2) The player is also able to use the train line tool to create train routes within the city limits i.e. the player is able to build inner city train lines servicing the different parts of the city.
Train tracks are cheaper to build compared to underground metro tracks but train tracks require room to be built hence they must be fitted within the city next to all the buildings and roads. However, the player can build elevated train tracks to navigate over some of the obstacles a city can present.

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The passenger train terminal. Tourists are boarding the train.

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Cargo train terminal located in an industrial area of the city.

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Cargo train has left the terminal and is heading outside of the city.

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Cities: Skylines features elevated train tracks as well.

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Railway bridge next to the highway.

Harbors
Harbors are divided into a passenger harbor and a cargo harbor. Both service intercity traffic, bringing in tourists and shipping goods to and from the city. Due to the huge capacity of the ships harbors are one of the largest entry points into the city by means of public transport.

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Passenger ship arriving to the passenger terminal.

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A Cargo ship and a cargo terminal.

Airport
Airport services mostly passengers and is the most expensive public transport investment. It brings in a lot of tourists and can really boost the economy. While the airport increases tourism into the city it also causes quite a lot of noise pollution which means that it is wise to build the airport far from residential zones.

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The airport.

- Henkka also known as an artist, designer and level designer at Colossal Order
 
Cool! I always wanted an airpot!
 
would it be possible to have larger harbors and airports? They seem to be absurdly small...
Apart from that it the concept really looks good
<- this. everything looks really good, but harbors and airports are too small. if you build one in your city it should take a lot of space, but the reward are tourists and cargo en masse
 
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Agreed with Zed68. If there would be a possibility to place a station "UNDER" a road then it would be possible to spawn these entrances on both sides of the streets.
How do we build cross stations? Nothing to see about
 
<- this. everything looks really good, but harbors and airports are too small. if you build one in your city it should take a lot of space, but the reward are tourists and cargo en masse

I think it could be nice to have modular design for large complexes like seaside structures (harbors, marinas, seawall etc.)

Example from other games or game's mods
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I don't really understand why Colossal Order is shying away from making large structures, even though they already have quite large maps.
 
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Please please please do NOT make the mistake to have subway stations always take that much size.

Most of the time in big cities, they are just a stairway in a regular sidewalk, they do not need to take as much space as a small house.

Agreed, the subway entrance which should be small is too big and air/seaports which should be big are too small. I really like the transport we have available, but it would be nice if the scale of what you build in the city is kept consistent.
 
Really like this - I'm most excited about trains, definitely. Looks really good, couple of observations though

Transport buildings look too clear. IRL, buildings like this are filthy about 5 mins after they open and stay that way forever
Got to agree about harbour sizes, though I think the airport in this shot looks fine, I wouldn't worry too much about increasing it. Not every airport is JFK or Schipol. Perhaps harbour building could stay the same size, but you could designate land around it for harbour use, increasing the capacity?
 
Thank you that you are hearing our prayers. Public transport is a very important thing. Is the train station you can decorate the benches, flowers, parks, parkings etc. This empty space beats the eyes.
It's a little sugary and coloured too. Generally, everything else I like. :)

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Great but some things could get better

First, I really do not like the bus model which is actually a coach and not a bus. Coaches are long distances and bus short distances... We need actual busses in adition to coaches

Metro station is too large. Agreed with what was said. In most cities, they are just stairs going down

Airport looks ridiculously countrysidish and needs more details in its looks to seem credible.

Bus depot is too cartoonish and proportions don't seem right

Other than that, it's great!
 
Thank you so much for sharing this.. I'm so hyped about this upcoming city building game.. simply cant wait for it's release.. Just a minor question.. The harbor and airport, What purpose do they serve other than bringing tourist? Do they also bring in workers from other city for intercity traffic in the game?
 
The airport showing in the picture is just a regional airfield but not an international aviation hub which can handling A380. Is that possible to divided the airport into different level with different capacity (Small, medium and large) and make it expendable?
 
I agree that the metro entrances need to be smaller, harbors and airports need to be bigger.

As a personal addition: what about metro tracks that are sometimes underground, sometimes overground? Many underground train systems change from underground to overground as they get further away from the city center. Will this be possible? And do we get actual separate metro "lines" with transfer stations for passengers to transfer from one line to the other? (Such that it could be possible to draw a metro map, e.g. like this) Would also be cool if we could see the underground foot tunnels that a metro station (esp. a transfer one) is built up out of.

Call me weird but there's to much bright orange, reds , greens and lots of bright colours in the game i hope they fix to make it a bit more realistic.

I also agree with this. Buildings and vehicles look a bit too much like colored boxes. But maybe they just haven't finished the textures yet?