Streetcars

The Streetcar Depot must be placed next to a High Density Streetcar Avenue. Streetcar Stops can be added to the avenue’s median.

Streetcars are the quintessential image that comes to mind when most Sims think of mass transit. These train-like vehicles travel along tracks embedded in avenues, carrying up to 200 Sims per streetcar. To start an efficient streetcar system you’ll need a sizable network of High Density Streetcar Avenues as well as a Streetcar Depot.

Sims board and disembark from streetcars at Streetcar Stops, placed along the median of the avenues. Once your streetcar system is up and running, monitor its efficiency within the info tab of the Mass Transit menu. Here you can see average wait times at stops as well as daily ridership.

Try to keep wait times below 20 minutes to provide a reliable service Sims actually want to use. To decrease wait times at stops, add more streetcars through the construction of additional Streetcar Garages at the Streetcar Depot. Since stops have to be placed on High Density Streetcar Avenues, the efficiency of the system is also tied to the layout of these avenues.

Unless you have a road network consisting entirely of High Density Streetcar Avenues, you’ll need to carefully plan out the flow of traffic and look for opportunities to extend streetcar service into high density neighborhoods.

Streetcar Depot

• Cost: 30,000
• Operational Cost: 375 per hour
• Streetcars: 3
• Streetcar Capacity: 200 Sims
• Prerequisites:
• Town Hall
• Description: Ding! Ding! This station provides the basis of a streetcar system in your city. Includes three streetcars, but you’ll need to add Streetcar Stops for it to have anywhere to go. Must be placed on a High Density Streetcar Avenue.

If you want to see streetcars zipping up and down your avenues, you’ll need a Streetcar Depot. This building houses and dispatches streetcars throughout your city. Before placing this depot, upgrade an existing avenue to a High Density Streetcar Avenue using the Road Selector tool in the Roads menu.

Don’t just upgrade any avenue. Look for areas of congestion where the addition of streetcars can help alleviate gridlock. Once you’ve upgraded at least one long stretch of the avenue, build the Streetcar Depot next to it—this depot must be adjacent to a High Density Streetcar Avenue so the streetcars can access the tracks running down the median.

The stock Streetcar Depot comes with three streetcars, capable of transporting 200 Sims each. You can add more streetcars by building additional Streetcar Garage modules, each capable of housing and servicing two extra streetcars. In all, one Streetcar Depot can dispatch a total of 15 streetcars, capable of transporting as many as 3,000 Sims at any given time. If your streetcars are still filled to capacity, consider adding another Streetcar Depot to increase ridership and reduce wait times at stops.

Modules

Streetcar Sign

• Cost: 200
• Operational Cost: None
• Maximum Modules: 1
• Description: It’s a sign of things to come. Ha ha…what?

Streetcar Garage

• Cost: 3,000
• Operational Cost: 300 per hour
• Streetcars: 6
• Streetcar Capacity: 200 Sims
• Maximum Modules: 1
• Description: Is streetcar desire out of control in your city? Add another Streetcar Garage to prevent passengers from being left waiting at stops.

Streetcar Stop

• Cost: 500
• Operational Cost: 30 per hour
• Streetcar Stop Capacity: 200 Sims
• Prerequisites:
• Streetcar Depot
• Description: The best place for Sims to stop in the middle of the road! Placed on a High Density Streetcar Avenue, this stop allows Sims to get on and off streetcars.

These stops give Sims a place to wait for the next streetcar. Each streetcar in your system stops here to pick up and drop off Sims. You can plop these stops along the median of any High Density Streetcar Avenue connected to a Streetcar Depot.

Just like Bus Stops, when you place a Streetcar Stop, the avenue is highlighted in green, with the green area representing the walking distance to the stop. Any Sim within this green area can easily walk to the stop before seeking another form of transportation.

Add more Streetcar Stops to expand this green highlighted area, ensuring each Sim along the avenue is never too far away from a stop. Ideally it’s best to provide streetcar coverage along the entire length of your High Density Streetcar Avenue.

However, if money is tight, don’t bother placing stops in high wealth neighborhoods—high wealth Sims do not ride streetcars. As ridership increases, these stops will become crowded and the wait times will increase. But instead of placing additional stops, build additional Streetcar Garages at the Streetcar Depot. This will increase the frequency in which streetcars arrive at each stop, increasing ridership and decreasing wait times.

High Density Streetcar Avenue

• Cost: 30
• Operational Cost: None
• Number of Lanes: 6
• Maximum Density Supported: High
• Description: This wide six-lane road supports high density zones with traffic lights at intersections. Streetcar tracks running down the center provide support for Streetcar Stops.

This is the same avenue available in the Roads menu, included here for greater ease when creating your streetcar network. The avenue performs identically to the High Density Avenue, but the addition of streetcar tracks down the center median allows more Sims to share the road.

Before you can take advantage of streetcars you must first construct a Streetcar Depot adjacent to this avenue. Streetcar stops can then be constructed along the avenue’s median, giving Sims a place to board and disembark from the streetcar. As ridership increases, fewer and fewer cars appear on the avenue, reducing congestion.

Streetcar Tracks

• Cost: 10
• Operational Cost: None
• Description: Two tracks for streetcars to travel along, useful for connecting sections of your city that do not share roads. Does not support Streetcar Stops.

These Streetcar Tracks are ideal for connecting two High Density Streetcar Avenues that never intersect. Just like roads, simply draw a line of tracks between the two avenues to make the connection. These tracks allow the streetcars to move along corridors not filled with cars, trucks, and other vehicles.

However, streetcars still have to obey basic traffic rules when intersecting other roads, causing them to stop at intersections. When possible, set these tracks in areas where they don’t intersect other roads, even if it means extending the tracks through undeveloped areas of your city.

Your entire system will be much more efficient if the streetcars can avoid intersections. However, there’s one down side to these tracks—you can’t place Streetcar Stops on them. So even if the streetcar is traveling through a particular neighborhood, residents can’t make use of it unless there’s a stop located on a High Density Avenue.