Cost of Infrastructure pops up
Game time with Cities Skylines is reduced at the moment as I await the Mass Transit DLC to come out later this year. Given the new DLC will have very large changes to the transport system in the game I am holding back large-scale developments in both Layton City and San Solaria unless I want to do be doing very expensive and time-consuming retrofitting.
None-the-less I booted the game up recently and continued some minor expansions to San Solaria City. So new low density residential developments were placed down in the west while the foundations for a new high density satellite city development were laid down on the other side of the San Solaria River. More importantly however, the main focus was on the transit system with a new tram line and new Metro (subway/LRT) line commissioned.
Other remedial measures were also implemented such as west-facing ramps along the main coastal motorway to allow trucks to access the port and its surrounding industrial complex. The new ramps meant freight traffic was not exiting nor entering the motorway from the eastern City Centre ramps and subsequently travelling through City Centre streets. I am still going to let the game run another week in-game time to see how the ramps go and if working out I will shrink main City Centre road back to four lanes from the current six lanes.
As I mentioned earlier a new Metro line opened allowing a east-west cross-city transit route between the two ends of the City. Currently San Solaria lacks a full cross-city transit service as the busses are mainly local feeders. At the same time the first cross-city tram service was opened up to the south of the City connecting Meadow District to Belmont. The Line will be extended to Cozy Clifftops and connect to the City Centre tram system giving another access point to the City Centre and Airport.
Here are some pictures of the latest happenings:
Sprawl Costs
If you notice the Budget you can see there is a deficit in there despite a population of 100,000 residents. Normally by the 100k mark the City starts turning over surpluses. So why the persistent deficits? Sprawl.
Layton City is mainly a high density compact city (with two satellites) with an intricate transit system serving it. As the City is compact I am not having to sprawl out expensive infrastructure to serve far-flung residents and businesses. In San Solaria the city tends to more low density sprawl apart from the City Centre and Belmont. The product? It is expensive to serve the sprawl with Metro lines to connect it to the main employment Centres.
Now I can slash the $45,000 heavy rail expense line to claw back the $35,000 deficit in the main budget but given the heavy rail system moves the bulk of freight and inter-city passengers it will be ill-considered unless I want to back the roads up again.
The alternative is to get some density going which is what the new Satellite development will be doing creating a twins city effect.
So yes it does folks, sprawl costs in both budget lines and congestion.
Ben's Cities 