I've come to really enjoy seeing the crazy new things the community comes up with for additions to the already great transportation mechanics in Skylines, but if there was ever one thing I felt needed a bit more attention, it was dealing with the cargo terminal.
My problem with this facility is the sheer cumbersomeness it forces you to deal with. It essentially forces much of your outgoing truck traffic to one place, which can cause some pretty nasty traffic buildups, and you can't really remedy this by building another because of its large footprint and high price tag. But taking some inspiration from real life industrial railroad operations, I think I may have some mods in mind that could present an alternative to this.
Firstly, to deal with the traffic funneling problem, I've thought of the possibility of creating smaller, cheaper cargo 'depots' that can be stuck in existing industrial and commercial areas. The catch would be that they could take less truck and train traffic coming in or out, and could only take a specific product. Thus there would be four types; forestry, farming, oil and ore. This also helps with a minor problem of having inappropriate truck traffic clogging up a specialized industrial district (ex. cavalcades of oil trucks meandering through your farming district).
Secondly, to help with placing the track to these facilities without bulldozing everything, I'd propose a new type of track; street running.
Similar to how the upcoming tram tracks work, street running would allow tracks to be placed right in the medians of existing roads, serving industries and the smaller cargo depots directly. This can potentially ease freight truck traffic in the streets overall, but as a downside, it creates a bit of noise pollution and can clog up whatever road traffic remains there. It potentially also offers the benefit of a shortcut for passenger and cargo trains through developed parts of the city by squeezing through the streets.
Overall, these ideas would allow the enterprising mayor to swap out capacity for space when building their industrial network. But are they actually possible on a technical level is what I'm wondering.
My problem with this facility is the sheer cumbersomeness it forces you to deal with. It essentially forces much of your outgoing truck traffic to one place, which can cause some pretty nasty traffic buildups, and you can't really remedy this by building another because of its large footprint and high price tag. But taking some inspiration from real life industrial railroad operations, I think I may have some mods in mind that could present an alternative to this.
Firstly, to deal with the traffic funneling problem, I've thought of the possibility of creating smaller, cheaper cargo 'depots' that can be stuck in existing industrial and commercial areas. The catch would be that they could take less truck and train traffic coming in or out, and could only take a specific product. Thus there would be four types; forestry, farming, oil and ore. This also helps with a minor problem of having inappropriate truck traffic clogging up a specialized industrial district (ex. cavalcades of oil trucks meandering through your farming district).
Secondly, to help with placing the track to these facilities without bulldozing everything, I'd propose a new type of track; street running.
Similar to how the upcoming tram tracks work, street running would allow tracks to be placed right in the medians of existing roads, serving industries and the smaller cargo depots directly. This can potentially ease freight truck traffic in the streets overall, but as a downside, it creates a bit of noise pollution and can clog up whatever road traffic remains there. It potentially also offers the benefit of a shortcut for passenger and cargo trains through developed parts of the city by squeezing through the streets.
Overall, these ideas would allow the enterprising mayor to swap out capacity for space when building their industrial network. But are they actually possible on a technical level is what I'm wondering.
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