Auto route

[ostlandr]

I tend to run passenger trains mostly on short local routes, A-B-C-B, C-D-E-D, etc. to keep up good service. (Connecting bus & truck services help keep station ratings up, too.) Then I can just clone these trains (grouping them, with shared orders.) When I have tons of passengers at certain stations, I run "express" trains between those cities. The Passenger Destinations patch(es) tend to force you to hit more cities with each train to make a profit, although there are still opportunities later in the game for long-distance service between popular destinations.

When I have a good supply of goods, I run trains from the goods source(s) to different cities, making sure I supply everybody that wants goods, to promote city growth.

I like the challenge of figuring out how to structure my freights so that I get revenue on every leg of the trip- e.g. Lumber and Goods A to B, , Goods B to C, steel and goods C to B, and goods back to A. (The exception is unit trains of coal, wood, iron ore, etc.)