Do freight trains have any purpose here?

[wetblowdryer]

Playing on an island map with zero outside train connections. I've made heavy use of passenger trains, but I'm not sure if freight trains will be of any use because I have no outside connections. Are they of use? If so, where should I put the stations?

 

[Shiggs]

eh, maybe leading from your industrial area to a high density commercial area, but only if they are struggling to get goods.

 

[Kagemusha]

In addition to the things Shiggs said ... maybe for leading from your resource extraction/refining sites to your general industrial areas
(as AFAIK resources get turned into intermediate products in the extraction/refining sites which in turn are used to produce goods in your "normal" factories)

 

[Ri0Rdian]

Island map...that means harbour. Or multiple. So you can load/unload at that, pass it onto cargo train, and get them where they are needed. Much less trucks everywhere but kinda a lot when one of those trains arrives at the station and starts loading/unloading for the industry/commerce.

 

[Xterminator]

Yeah all great answers so far. Cargo trains can in fact be used for in-city transport of materials and goods. Can definitely see on traffic.
Also the suggestion of combining it with the use of a harbor would be great too!

 

[EvilTom]

I've successfully paired an oil producing specialized area with an internal rail connection to a general industrial zone to cut out the traffic between. There was no external connection.

It would be nice if rail could be used for garbage (or recycling in future) too.

 

[Xterminator]

I've successfully paired an oil producing specialized area with an internal rail connection to a general industrial zone to cut out the traffic between. There was no external connection.

It would be nice if rail could be used for garbage (or recycling in future) too.

Nice! And yeah no kidding, that would be amazing. Garbage trucks take up quite a bit of room on the streets...

 

[EvilTom]

Nice! And yeah no kidding, that would be amazing. Garbage trucks take up quite a bit of room on the streets...

Cheers.

Well with the garbage I was thinking that it might be handy to use freight stations to move it to another location say from a landfill to an incinerator on the other side of the map (as an example)

 

[BerlinBlues]

I also have a question regarding freight trains. I just set up an industrial zone specializing in oil and in anticipation of a lot of trucks being spawned I immediately built a cargo station and connected it to the "outside world". When a train arrived some good are loaded onto spawned trucks and hauled off somewhere. however, what I am not seeing is trucks bringing good from the industry zones to the train station. Are the goods for export by train "beamed" to the train station?

 

[Ri0Rdian]

Chances are those goods are being sold in your own city. Only when your production is higher than your consumption will goods be moved away for export (via whatever route is available). No beaming.

 

[BerlinBlues]

Thanks for all the replies! Another question: Does a cargo station have a certain "radius"? In the sense that industry only within a certain distance of the cargo station will transport goods for export there?

 

[korinekivo]

Not really, they will use it if it's faster than going by road, so technically as long as the path's faster, you can have loads of trucks going to station in the middle of nowhere.