Wise or unwise merger?

[Baldy's Boss]

I went ahead and had Wardwood Western Railway (a pure play railroad) buy out its closest competitor(a rapidly expanding road vehicle company with no trains and a handful of ships).
Here's before and after saves...was this a good business decision?

[siu238X]

For the sake of your game, yes, but I thought you had had a plan to integrate that company's operations to yours before you asked this question.

Frankly some of that company's routes should be replaced by railways ASAP.

[Baldy's Boss]

For the sake of your game, yes, but I thought you had had a plan to integrate that company's operations to yours before you asked this question.

Frankly some of that company's routes should be replaced by railways ASAP.

I really didn't look them over pre-merger like I do with railroads (for stranded or corkcrewed stations,etc).If they can be made MORE profitable with trains that would be a good thing to look into,but their margins were better than mine.
Attached is latest.
Any particular routes you noted?...as vehicles get tool old for service there can be conversions(I replaced their old buses with newer ones).

EDITED TO ADD newer save...Trains 88,89,90 now serve road vehicle routes that could be easily intermodalized/paralleled.

[FLHerne]

From a strictly practical perspective, almost any merger is unwise - understanding, integrating and reorganising the network will take longer than just building a new route to earn the same amount of money somewhere else, and in OTTD saving time (so you can increase your rate of income faster) is worth far more than saving a few thousand in construction costs.

Especially since AIs usually build inefficient and poorly-integrated networks.

OTOH, that probably isn't the answer you care about, since 'earning ludicrous amounts of money' is an unsatisfying sort of goal usually.

[Baldy's Boss]

From a strictly practical perspective, almost any merger is unwise - understanding, integrating and reorganising the network will take longer than just building a new route to earn the same amount of money somewhere else, and in OTTD saving time (so you can increase your rate of income faster) is worth far more than saving a few thousand in construction costs.

Especially since AIs usually build inefficient and poorly-integrated networks.

OTOH, that probably isn't the answer you care about, since 'earning ludicrous amounts of money' is an unsatisfying sort of goal usually.

If an AI is overtaking you in the League Table you're doing something wrong.(Some of my older games,before I enabled buying competitors,have me in last place).
As of the attached,Trains 88-93 add freight train service to some of the AI's road vehicle routes,and 94 takes steel from a mill where the AI sent 40 trucks from three different ore mines.(Some of those trucks couldn't find their way back after I rerouted the roads).
The road stations with the highest waiting passenger counts tend to be in center city locations where I'd have to rip up the cityscape,costing the local authority's willingness to let me build a train station,to build a train station,so I'm not sure how to upgrade service to those passengers.

[Kevo00]

Trams are your best bet to expand a service into a city centre that you can't build in.

[Baldy's Boss]

Trams are your best bet to expand a service into a city centre that you can't build in.

I don't think they're available except through NewGRFs not active in that game?

[planetmaker]

Trams are your best bet to expand a service into a city centre that you can't build in.

I don't think they're available except through NewGRFs not active in that game?

Yes, trams can only be provided by NewGRFs. There are no default trams.

[Kevo00]

Trams are your best bet to expand a service into a city centre that you can't build in.

I don't think they're available except through NewGRFs not active in that game?

Yup, but in general they are they best way I've found to get passengers in volume into city centres. Either that or building city centre stations by attrition.

[Baldy's Boss]

Not help for the Wardwood game,then.Though passengers can build up madly at city-edge stations too...don't know how I'll adequately serve Little Huburg,Kentfield,Slefingpool.

(what are you thinking of in terms of attrition?)

[Kevo00]

Blow up as many buildings as you can, buy the land, then allow your rating to rise, which it should if you have trains already serving the city somewhere. A good bus service would help too. Obviously set this up before you start demolishing. You can try bribing or statues or whatever, that might help. Plant trees too. It can take a long time but I have built subway lines using this method. Best to tunnel into a city centre then build a lowered station.

[Baldy's Boss]

I can't help it,I hate disrupting cityscapes or farmland or watercourses.
I don't mind blocking roads,though.
Sometimes I extend a station into the city tile by tile if things behind it get demolished.

[Baldy's Boss]

Wardwood Western has just done another merger,one planned for a bit...I had bought 50% of the company years ago and closed after they spent a lot on construction.
However,I fear the merger has seriously damaged profitability.
Here are the before and afters...I demolished about 30 useless stations and added some missing trains,but this took me from about 99% electric to about 75% because the AI believed in fast diesels.

The maintenance bills are up to 3 mil a month.

[Baldy's Boss]

The second merger has been survived.I did put the whole company in the red for 1996 on one construction project...twin tunnels and the ripping out of a chunk of mountain to get their length down to my preset maximum of 72 tiles to Flathill Valley station.But fortunately the Trains 133 and 134 these accommodate immediately became top earners.The underwater tunnel and second platform at Little Huburg to enable Train 135 were cheap by comparison.Maintenance now 4 mil a month...the Plonnville game was paying over 50 mil a month by 2051 but on a far larger network (even in the 1990s that game was running far more trains).

(note:I clicked submit before the file attachment uploaded,and the message saved with the file shown as attached...but the "upload currently in progress" window is still going even as I type this edit minutes [edit again:more like hours] afterward...)