Are long roads between towns useful?

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pootis
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Are long roads between towns useful?

Post by pootis »

I often end up giving a lot of towns busses. I wanted to know if it is feasible to have roads connect these towns rather with a 1 way road running either way next to each other rather than using trains like I usually do. Is doing this a good idea?
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kamnet
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Re: Are long roads between towns useful?

Post by kamnet »

Trains typically end up being more profitable because they have higher capacities and higher speeds. But you can also build a profitable route from buses if you manage your resources well. There is no need to make two one-way roads, as roads have much more capacity than train lines do, and do not need signal management. You would only need a second road if the road in both directions is so busy that a vehicle with slower speeds entering it completely bogs the rest of the network down.
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odisseus
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Re: Are long roads between towns useful?

Post by odisseus »

kamnet wrote: 20 Sep 2021 03:56 You would only need a second road if the road in both directions is so busy that a vehicle with slower speeds entering it completely bogs the rest of the network down.
I don't think one-way roads are actually helpful in such situations. The vehicles don't use the other lane anyway, except for overtaking.

The only real advantage of one-way "highways" is the fact that they cannot be crossed by a railway, and thus offer some protection from griefers.
Wahazar
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Re: Are long roads between towns useful?

Post by Wahazar »

In case of "classic" openttd, long routes are insignificant, but in case of FIRS, ECS or other industry newgrfs, such roads are convenient for supplies delivery.
Also with cargodist enabled, for tuning cargo saturation.
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odisseus
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Re: Are long roads between towns useful?

Post by odisseus »

If you are transporting small amounts of cargo over long distances, one road lane in each direction is usually sufficient. When you end up having so many trucks that they clog the road, it is time to replace them with a train.
mauried
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Re: Are long roads between towns useful?

Post by mauried »

I generally build long roads between towns even though early in the game they arnt all that useful, but as the game progresses and you get better vehicles they become far more useful.
One advantage that roads have over trains is that vehicles on roads will automatically overtake other vehicles if a fast vehicle catches up to a slow vehicle.
Trains wont do this , and you can get holdups caused by slow freight trains holding up faster passenger trains.
While there are workarounds to fix this it needs a lot of complex orders and dedicated passing sidings.
Once you get to around 1980 or later the busses and the trucks go faster and they can carry more.
Busses are also more useful in servicing lots of small towns where a train would have to wait a long time to get a full load.
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Re: Are long roads between towns useful?

Post by Railwaymodeler »

When I play with Timberwolf's train set, by the 1930s I tend to connect towns with roads, as in his train set, mail cars tend to limit the speed of passenger trains. So, when trucks become feasible for it, I use them to haul mail between towns, and leave the trains as passenger only.

It is actually a nice change for me as when I play with American train sets, I often put a fair number of head-end cars (Baggage cars, express cars, railway post office cars) that carry mail, as that is realistic for American passenger trains, especially before World War II. Since no American set I've played with has any such speed restrictions on mail cars, they can all run at full passenger train speeds, I've never had a good reason to haul intercity mail by truck.

Also, if I set up a train route, regardless of train set used, I find that in time, it becomes more profitable to let the train stop only at major cities, and run a road between smaller towns. as feeders to the stations in large cities. Depending on road vehicle sets in use, I usually wait until the 1950s to do this. Sometimes I use streetcar lines for this though.
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