When players reach the Boom Town milestone inCities: Skylines, they get access to bus lines and public transportation. Just like in real life, public transport gives citizens a way of moving around a city without using cars, and so it’s a useful way tocut down on stressful traffic jams.
The trouble is that buses can also contribute to traffic problems, and they may not be worth the effort if nobody uses them. That’s why it’s important to understand both how to set up bus lines inCities: Skylinesand how to make them as effective as possible.
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Getting Started
The first thing players should do to set up bus lines is create a bus depot. To do this, players should click on the Transport icon in the interface (it looks like a bus) and then choose the bus tab. This is the only one that’sunlocked at the Boom Town stage, but more of them will become available as the city grows.
The bus tab includes a bus depot building and several special roads with bus-only lanes. Players should note that these bus lane roads are also available in the regular road menu. The last item in this menu is the “Bus Line,” which is how players can set up new routes.
The bus depot can gojust about anywhere on the map. A single depot can serve any number of buses, and the number of buses on a line depends on the line length and the city budget for bus transportation. Buses will return to the depot sometimes for servicing, but this happens rarely enough that players shouldn’t worry about it. However, the bus depot does generate noise pollution, so verify it’s in an industrial or commercial area where it won’t bother residents.
To set up a bus line, click on the Bus Line option and then choose a street. Keep in mind thatit matters which side of the street players choose. The spot clicked on will become a bus stop, and on certain road types this will add a special bus parking lane that gets the bus out of the way of traffic. Next, click on another road where the bus should stop next.
Players can create as many stops as they want, and as long as the roads are all connected the bus line will create a path between them. However, players should try to keep the bus routeas simple and straight as possible. To finish a route, click on the first bus stop again. This will create a complete loop the buses will follow.
Advanced Concepts
While it’s easy enough to create a bus line, it’s much harder to create one that will really make an impact on how citizens get around. Fortunately,players have plenty of toolsin the lines overview and bus line menus.
The lines overview lets players quickly see how many bus lines are active, what kinds of buses run each line, how many stops each line has, and how many passengers use the line every week on average. Players can also choose a color for each line to make them stand out in the transport view, and this also helps with the regular view since buses are painted the same color assigned to their line.
By clicking on the magnifying glass next to each line, players can get a menu that has more details. This view shows where and how full each bus on the line is, how many people are waiting at each stop, and how big of an impact the bus line is having on commuter traffic. The most important figure on this menu is “Car trips saved.” The higher the percentage is, the more people are taking the bus instead of driving their cars.
Something else players can do on this menu is adjust the number of buses that run on each line. A line that has a lot of passengers waiting should geta larger budget and more buses, while one that few people need can run with one or two buses instead.
Players can also change what kind of bus runs on each line, and this change is more than cosmetic. An articulated bus or double-decker bus can hold more passengers, giving lines more capacity without having to raise the number of buses.
Here are some other factors to consider:
Cities: Skylinesis available now on PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on February 15.
