There are industries yet to receive transport - farms and mines that I've simply ignored up to now. A lot of the unserved industries are close to my network, they're just waiting for their own station and a few trains.
I really enjoy a network with total coverage, so I started thinking about perhaps taking over a competitor's company and running services to the other industries. The problem is, my network aready provides most of the required infrastructure, and to set up another network on the same island of similar capacity would be nearly impossible. At the same time, there are areas of my own network which have room for expansion, and it seems silly to waste this potential. What I wondered was this: is there any possibility of running trains on another company's lines? I could manage a competitor's company, build a depot on my original tracks and continue to expand my network. Of course, profit would go to the computer company but let's face it - when you've got 240 trains you're not worried about the money, are you?
I understand that it's open to abuse: there's nothing to stop you putting trains onto an enemy line and causing havoc - but who can be bothered doing this to the AI? They're so stupid that you don't need to help them fail - I generally find myself trying to help them succeed; straightening their tracks and upgrading their wooden rail bridges. I have no interest in sabotaging their lines with slow trains... if I want to sabotage their services I'll just manage the company and delete a few sections of track! Of course, equally, they could sabotage your services - but I doubt that it's within the capability of their thinking to use your tracks: they seem to have enough difficulty using their own.
Obviously, you could refine the idea by charging someone for using competitor's track, or requiring the companies to have their own stations - quite how it would affect the workings of station ratings I don't know.
I don't know how the game engine works, but I presume the things that would need sorting are:
o The ability to run on foreign track
o The ability to change frrom your own track to another company's
The things that makes me think that it might be possible are the old cheat of sticking a depot behind an enemy's station and launching a cheap steam train into the back of their service, and the fact that you've already made it so that when you change tracks from one type to another, old trains continue to run on inappropriate rails.
Anyway, that's my idea. Feel free to dismantle it but please be kind
