Train stations -- which end is up?

[Jmouse]

Hi all,
How can I be sure which direction the passenger and freight stations are supposed to be turned? The tiny pictures in the user's manual are no help (my eyesight isn't good enough!). So, is it S.O.P. for the arrow to face the track or the road? And if I get it wrong, will I get a "No access" zot?
Thanks in advance.

[jplumbley]

The front of a lot when plopping something (anything, including a train station) is always in teh direction that the arrow is pointing.  So, for the front of the lot to be facing the road, the arrow must be facing the road.

Now for your question of will you get a no connection zot.  That depends on what you are placing.  For things like train stations, you will not get a no connection sign as long as there is a road next to it in any direction (someone correct me if I am mistaken).  As for buildings that create jobs, many of these buildings as far as I know will cause no connection zots if the arrow is not facing the road.  These lots sometimes include ploppable landmarks with jobs.  Parks wont cause no connection zots even if there is no road connected to any side of it.

I hope this is helpful.

JPlumbley

[cogeo]

Simple train stations - the ones that need not be placed on the track (like the ingame one) can be placed in any direction or manner, they just need to be placed adjacent to the track and have road access. Otherwise it's only a matter of realism/appearance.
Stations that are placed on the track must have road access too. The more sides of the station are accessible by road the better, ie the station will enjoy more usage, as journeys to reach the station will be shorter.

[Jmouse]

Thanks to both of you for your helpful replies. If the arrow just needs to face a road, as it must with most other functional SC4 lots, that certainly would simplify things! Now, just wish me luck with my venture into the realm of railroading (lol).
Hark! Could that be the faint sound of a tutorial calling?

[cogeo]

The lot arrow for rail stations does not need to point to any road, it may point even to the track, another lot, or even to an unzoned area. The ingame train station (this is also the case with most stations on the LEX/STEX) perform the necessary transit switches (rail<->pedestrian and car->pedestrian) at all four sides, so the direction does not really matter. So place your stations based on appearance. Eg the parking area may not be just next to the track, while the station building is next to the road. The arrow just denotes the "front" side of lots, but this is only a convention.
A rail tutorial? Laying and using rails is really simple, just some notes:
- The only kind of traffic that takes place in SC4 is commute (no shopping, leisure, entertainement, visiting a school, a hospital or a church, etc). So you must lay tracks and place stations connecting residences to workplaces.
- Sims may walk up to 6-7 tiles to get to a station (or maybe 8, if your service is good). But stations offer also parking facilities, so sims may drive to the station to ride a train (known as "park and ride"). That is stations can serve a larger area, and not just the housing within walking distance from the station. But this happens only at the residential end.
- At the commercial or industrial end, sims can only walk, so stations in these areas must be placed in a more dense arrangement. Or you can place busstops next to the stations and in your industrial area or (commercial) downtown. Sims can combine trips, ie exit the train and ride a bus to reach their workplaces.
- Wealthy sims are reluctant to use mass-transit, especially the "slow" types (bus, trains), they are much more likely to use the "fast" transit (subway, el, GLR, monorail), but they actually prefer their cars, so you must some way "force" them to use MT (provide abundant and fast MT and a not-so-good road connection).
- The ingame train stations have a very limited capacity so they can easily be clogged if they are placed even in a small dense area. Try using stations from the LEX/STEX.
- Rail tracks can also be clogged, consider laying double (well, literally quadruple) track and use high-capacity stations w/ a double pair of tracks if you are going to connect dense areas.
Good luck, hope the above have helped.

[sebes]

Thanks Cogeo for this very helpfull information

[Jmouse]

I thank you as well, cogeo. I've played SC4Dx for years but most of my cities don't survive long enough to need much MT. I'm a cockeyed perfectionist, don't ya see!
Nevertheless, I've vowed to start solving in-game problems with something other than the detonator, so I'm starting to explore more options.
Thanks again to all of you for your help.