Here's a suggestion for something to include in the next addon to CiM:
When selecting the stops on a route, how about being able to specify that the vehicle will only pick up passenger, or only set down passengers, at a particular stop?
It would, generally speaking, be very useful when combining high- and low-frequency services along the same route.
For instance: a bus route from the centre of Vienna to that village in the south-west, with only two stops - one at each end. This route needs a low-frequency service (in 1945, with about six Leyland Tigers/Jubilee Carriers). And a second route, parallel to the first but terminating in the suburbs and with a stop every couple of blocks. This would need a high-frequency service (probably about eight Daimler-Benz D38/Bismarck 36). But I'd like to let the villagers travel to the suburbs as well as to the centre. As it is now, villagers heading to the suburbs must travel to the city centre, change buses, then go back along the same road in the city bus - not very attractive. Or, I could tell the country bus to use the suburban bus stops. But then, suburban passengers would try to use the country bus to get to the centre (and vice versa) - either they're left standing while a bus full of villagers goes straight past them, or the villagers can't board their bus because it's full of suburbaners, or combine the two routes into one high-frequency route and watch a lot of expensive empty buses driving through the countryside. Or I terminate the low-frequency route at the suburbs and let the villagers change buses - again, not attractive. Plus, this would add extra load to the suburban bus route.
But if I could tell the country bus to use the suburban bus stops, but the stops going towards the city are Passenger Drop-off Only, and the stops going away from the city are Passenger Pick-up Only, then no-one will be able to get on the wrong bus and both routes can have optimal capacity.
(In practice, I'd probably use a tram to the edge of the suburbs, but the same argument applies. I'd like to prevent passengers taking the country bus to the suburbs instead of taking the tram, so the country bus route can be optimised for the number of villagers travelling to the whole city.)
When selecting the stops on a route, how about being able to specify that the vehicle will only pick up passenger, or only set down passengers, at a particular stop?
It would, generally speaking, be very useful when combining high- and low-frequency services along the same route.
For instance: a bus route from the centre of Vienna to that village in the south-west, with only two stops - one at each end. This route needs a low-frequency service (in 1945, with about six Leyland Tigers/Jubilee Carriers). And a second route, parallel to the first but terminating in the suburbs and with a stop every couple of blocks. This would need a high-frequency service (probably about eight Daimler-Benz D38/Bismarck 36). But I'd like to let the villagers travel to the suburbs as well as to the centre. As it is now, villagers heading to the suburbs must travel to the city centre, change buses, then go back along the same road in the city bus - not very attractive. Or, I could tell the country bus to use the suburban bus stops. But then, suburban passengers would try to use the country bus to get to the centre (and vice versa) - either they're left standing while a bus full of villagers goes straight past them, or the villagers can't board their bus because it's full of suburbaners, or combine the two routes into one high-frequency route and watch a lot of expensive empty buses driving through the countryside. Or I terminate the low-frequency route at the suburbs and let the villagers change buses - again, not attractive. Plus, this would add extra load to the suburban bus route.
But if I could tell the country bus to use the suburban bus stops, but the stops going towards the city are Passenger Drop-off Only, and the stops going away from the city are Passenger Pick-up Only, then no-one will be able to get on the wrong bus and both routes can have optimal capacity.
(In practice, I'd probably use a tram to the edge of the suburbs, but the same argument applies. I'd like to prevent passengers taking the country bus to the suburbs instead of taking the tram, so the country bus route can be optimised for the number of villagers travelling to the whole city.)