You're going to love this light rail network | Cities Skylines 2

[@professorcoms2481]

There's no way he'd build a giant shopping cen- , he built a giant shopping center

[@kellenhayes3628]

And it honestly looked really good, was 100% worth it.

[@TheCriminalViolin]

STRIP MALLLLLSSS, BABY!!!! PARKING!!! PARKING!!! PARKING!!! 😂

[@noob.168]

@@kellenhayes3628 car centrism. boo

[@Ed-hz7ho]

Hahahaha!

[@Paul665]

Fine without the bridge. Never thought it made sense to have such expensive infrastructure there

[@coreopis]

I thought it was kinda cool, not really sad to see it go though

[@twodollarstwenty]

I think you’re right

[@NZVideoMaker]

Yes looks cleaner.

[@ykilahteenmaki677]

It is so inspiring how you utilize the real infrastructure from google earth to build your own city

[@dirtyds69]

doing this with mountainous/hilly terrain and trying to go for a pittsburgh vibe is always fun. with the light rail, bus system and highways navigating winding slopes n whatnot :)

[@_eighty8]

Im not about to just--- I did it. I built the shopping center. Great timing on that! I love it

[@noob.168]

scripted

[@_eighty8]

@noob.168 yeah that's how it works 👍

[@SpringySpring04]

@@noob.168 your username really reflects what you are ig

[@tomashladik5613]

I think there should be a one more stop in the Downtown, people don't like walking too much 😉

[@nicolasblume1046]

Agree! The stop spacing in the downtown should be denser than the rest of the line

[@92roxx163]

💯 more realistic also!

[@akellt]

yeah, you can imagine how those two stops in the city would get incredibly crowded at rush hour irl!

[@PoplarPonderosa]

That mall is amazing. So many buildings in one. 😂 Also really enjoy everything to do with the tram line. So many interesting decisions were needed.

[@evanfagan3433]

As new jerseyan I am loving this series so much. If i was to be nitpicky I would say there are 0 palm trees in NJ haha, but this is your world and it looks great regardless!

[@EdwardM-t8p]

With climate change it won't be long before you do! (Fingers crossed the North Atlantic overturning current doesn't halt first 🤞🏻)

[@andrewinnj]

I live in Jersey City and am tickled by your attention to detail in replicating its layout and vibe. The mall you've taken inspiration from is called Newport and, until very recently, was the home of New Jersey's last Sears. Your mall is unfortunately missing Newport's best feature which is, obviously, a Cheesecake Factory.

[@patrickcraft2375]

I think the bridge could be re-built as a pedestrian walking bridge. Some history could be that when the old railroad line was sold and repurposed for light rail, the city built around and through the city instead of fixing the bridge because it would’ve been cheaper to build around than repurpose old infrastructure. So the city decided to keep the bridge and turn it into a pedestrian bridge so they wouldn’t have to tear it down, keeping some history in the city. Great video TDT!

[@Deadsphere]

That's what Cincinnati/Newport did with the Newport Southbank "Purple People" Bridge!

[@nicolasblume1046]

@@patrickcraft2375 I think it would be better to redevelop the waterfront there with a nice promenade for walking and cycling

[@WilliamsBQH]

Seems like CS2 has come a really long way since launch. So happy to see that!

[@DDiGeron]

As a resident of Hoboken / “Lawrenceville”, absolutely correct it has a totally unique identity versus Jersey City and can be a really fun project to try and nail it. There’s very few high-rises (due to purposeful zoning restrictions) aside from along its very popular waterfront (which has been significantly built up into parks from the old shipping dock infrastructure). 90% of the town is lined with brownstone walk-ups, and as other comments noted cater to young families/college grads from Stevens Institute also in Hoboken. It has a significant Italian culture and can definitely say it’s mainly “yuppies”

[@DDiGeron]

Beyond that have been watching this channel for a long while and great seeing my neighborhoods get recreated and inspire your builds

[@bjroo]

The shopping center spawning in was something i was not prepared for lol

[@theorixlux]

Having a subterranean tunnel connecting the bus/taxi depot and the tram would be amazing: imagine seeing the mob of people periodically emerge from the tunnels mouth?!

[@MisterT87]

This message is for the KZbin Algorithm. ;-). Great video!

[@ghostangel828]

Incredible! I think you could make a supernode where your tram crosses the long park (old park) in your downtown. Your intersections will create way to much traffic.

[@lukgame-u6d]

Recycling old train tracks to tram tracks is a good idea. Another opportunity is using big streets. You can just delete two lines of the street and build a tram track instead. I think next step could be to connect other parts of the city with tram. I think tram is a cheap and efficient public transport. And there is some room for detailling at the tram stations ;-)

[@sandre41]

Love the shopping mall build. For the parking garage, I think it would be nice to have a small custom pedestrian bridge connecting the parking lots to the shopping mall complex.

[@ryanhoban4649]

I think the overhaul of Lawrenceville into a "second city" type situation should reflect maybe what Hoboken is to Jersey City. Lots of red brick, boogie expensive hipster neighbourhood with lots of young families.

[@Saurion1]

Alternatively, you could turn off the useless sub buildings in your shopping center and save the money and pollution. Also that bridge was goofy af and I'm glad it's gone.

[@SparkyTheSKUM]

31:46 "Sweet Fancy Moses" 10/10 on the phrases!

[@zecordeiro99]

I love this, i think would look great to have a museum or an historical building where the bridge was

[@lhaupt]

I feel like the terminus of the LRT should have 4 tracks for realism: turning a vehicle around is pretty time consuming and bottle-necks the whole system, so adding additional capacity (and removing the parking lots, who needs those) feels like the obvious choice. Especially looking at NJ's path for reference. Just my 2 cents...

[@EdwardM-t8p]

I'm quite impressed at how far along Cities Skylines 2 has come along, and how good a job you've done with New Dimesburg. Excellent video! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@Sovereign-Gaming]

Awesome infrastructure! It feels so realistic, great job as usual! To answer your question in the beginning of the episode, I'd say don't bother with placing cargo rails ontop of the tram rails. It's just going to be too much of a headache. Instead, just add in custom surfaces and decals in targeted areas. I have seen examples in real life where instead of there being concrete underneath the tracks, there's grass - well that could be cool to have in trendy little areas. To encourage more ridership, I have the following suggestions that could help: - I would suggest removing all of the taxi stands from the station with the exception of 1. - If you have any additional bus lines in New Dimesberg, I would suggest making them feed into the tram line or terminating them at tram stations to encourage transit transfers onto the superior transit technology (in this case, it's trams). One thing that I continue to see Cities players do time and time again is creating a network with various transit technologies that cannibalize each other; and by that, I mean that they make certain routes obsolete by having them use the same pathways. For example, having a bus route follow the exact same route as a tram route will cannibalize the ridership on both routes. I know that this happens in real life but in CS2, I think that it just confuses the cims as to which type of transit they want to take. - I would also suggest continuing the tram network to terminate either in front of the train station entrance or right in the bus bays. This would involve adding tracks to the roads but I think that a city would see the benefit in connecting the tram network directly to the ferry terminal, train terminal, and bus station and would pay to connect the tram accordingly. I think this would help your ridership by improving your transit convergence and thereby encouraging passenger transfer from one mode to another. My theory here is that once cims decide that they are going to walk to their destination, that they don't change their minds to use transit on the way. And since trams are slower, they may be taking into account stop lights, tram vehicle speed, etc and therefore are determining that walking is the fastest mode of transit. But that's just a theory lol.. It might be just worth an experiment to see how improving direct convergence onto trams affects your ridership. Great episode, and I'm excited to see how the tram network evolves going forward. It looks awesome!

[@solidXxXtuna]

I agree. I think the decals add just as much of the old RR track look as the tracks themselves and are much easier and quicker to place.

[@tomcat_1484]

I personally never liked the bridge it felt unnecessary and looked like a hazard to the ferries being so close to the port.

[@Ben-eo5vd]

Love your new(?) approach to montages! Great vid as always.

[@thomasobrien9519]

I really prefer it without the bridge over the water. Great job on the shopping centre!

[@jasper329]

this is awesome. would love to see some more historical aspects to the city, like a museum - maybe using the asset editor? keep it up! 🎉

[@mypdf]

41:50 Considering that you haven't connected the street to the waterfront path it is not wonder that no one is using it. Same for the bridge and tram station ;)

[@AlexandredePMesquita]

I love the giant shopping center, you could add a few restaurants and cafes on top of it to enjoy the view of the water front and the central station

[@dijikstra8]

I really like this, and you're demonstrating why public transit is so little used in the US - It's almost always built with the path of least resistance in mind, which also means it tends to end up away from population centers. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, despite its proximity and connections with transit to New York City which is the largest transit hub in the US and serving by US standards very dense cities, has pretty low ridership by international standards for a system of its size. (but still quite high by US standards)

[@francescoboselli6033]

12:34 new drink game: every time he says "old train line converted" drink a shot 😂

[@MackPlaysOnMac]

I think you should have an extra couple stop on your tram line, that would help with ridership. at least one when the tram is between the 2 roads in the middle of the downtown

[@alextjb]

on your mall… I think you could make it two stories. that would make it looks awesome AND give you more jobs and shops. The side facing the bay is perfect to stack a second story of shops. then it just needs a set of stairs to go from the group floor to the second floor. This would also have the benefit of letting you create a pedestrian sky bridge to the parking garage and really tie those two assets together as well. I hope you see this post because I would REAAAALLLYY love to see this in the build. Long time watcher of the channel… first time poster. Love your work, thanks so much for the inspiration.

[@fatherindia4810]

yknow what i do like this light rail network

[@SephStuff]

I think the lack of PT users is just like you said at the start - you aren’t building a fantastic network, just a cobbled together line. Once it goes to places people actually want to go, the riders will increase

[@simonsv9449]

We need a first person ride of this.

[@somethingrandom9017]

One thing I don't like about this is that your train station doesn't have any commercial development around it, which is weird, cause all the major rail terminal in most of the cities have transit-oriented development all around it, but here its just plain waterfront... don't know, it just feels a little unrealistic as it is...

[@solidXxXtuna]

You may have already done this, but have you dropped light rail prices? I haven't messed with light rail yet but ridership cost does seem to affect trains and buses (in that bus price up and train price down = more train and less bus rides; total ridership doesn't seem to change much). Could help get people out of taxis too, but only for those that woulda taken a taxi along the light rail route. Ridership of course will continue to grow as the network and number of stops expand. What I don't know is if train frequency and wait time affects ridership like irl. Does adding more trains to decrease overall wait time draw more cims to ride even when each train is nowhere near full? Kinda doubt it but hopefully somebody will test that someday. Add: Great video Twen! Really enjoying the series. Totally unique.

[@mrx2062]

The simpliest way to organize a public transport system appears to be to put subway stations at strategic central locations and then use busses to collect people in the surrounding area to transport them to the subway station.

[@vejomael]

What an amazing episode! God, you’re good at the game. In my opinion, we don’t need to make the tramlines look like old railways. I didn’t like the decals on that one bit at all. But do as you please-I have full faith you’ll make it work, as always.

[@twodollarstwenty]

Thanks dude! I’m not super convinced on the decals either

[@hekkensnatser]

Honestly, placing the station between Flawrence and the industrial site is not a bad call. It's certainly not ideal, but it allows the train to service both areas

[@ge4134]

thats where it is irl too!

[@christoph90er]

Your cities and videos are just amazing! 😍

[@BrakeCoach]

I was about to suggest something like Hoboken station for the HBLR, how the ststion part is a stub, and some trains pass it and run through. I think it would be a good line since it doesn't terminate in the city center, but continue onto Lawrencefield. Im glad you placed the Y junction so you can definitely expand further into there :)

[@Someone-qs1mn]

As a resident of this area, I really like what you have done. if i was to suggest a future pathway, the old shipping ports in Hoboken (the city north of jersey city) are very interesting and add a lot of depth to the city

[@tigonologdring9189]

Great build Twoey! Manipulation Mode is a ripper... but even easier to get those smooth junctions if you hold ALT while dragging the node handle (straight line mode)

[@twodollarstwenty]

Amazing thanks dude I’ll check out that feature! Thanks for the kind words

[@joeyeats2801]

That second entrance to the mall looks great!

[@quinlanroche342]

Light rail can have some crazy grading, the one in portland on the Orange line hops over a rail line at almost 10% grade

[@Unfunny_VR]

I’m finally able to play CS2!! I can’t wait!

[@tomcat_1484]

Love seeing all the rail infrastructure everywhere

[@ConnorHampo]

I wanna see what it looks like when he builds Manhattan

[@herusolares5320]

I see that the bus terminal is getting incredibly overcrowded. I think it'll be best if you create a pedestrian overpass up over the roads leading to the front of the station. This way the pedestrians don't have to wait at the quay, and the flow of crossing pedestrians won't hold up traffic.

[@Ilovebreathing-r8g]

Are you a time traveler the vid was posted on hour ago how did you write this comment 2 days ago?

[@bradleymanson6757]

@@Ilovebreathing-r8g Patreon supporters get videos early

[@herusolares5320]

@@Ilovebreathing-r8g Subscribers get early access

[@_eighty8]

Yeah. I've noticed that traffic is mostly caused by pedestrians walking in front of cars and slowing the whole system down.

[@Ilovebreathing-r8g]

@@bradleymanson6757 oh ok thanks for telling me

[@tbestig4164]

I’d love to see a small elevated pedestrian path connecting the parking garage to the mall! Just like, one of those little bridges that go over roads between two buildings

[@hisham3963]

17:14 that moment absolutely jumpscared me. I’m not sure how you enjoy destroying progress to spend time building more progress but that’s definitely inspiring me to destroy my whole city and build a new one. Thank you for the advice!

[@eligoldman9200]

It would be cool to add marina and a park where the bridge was. A lot of cities do that tho the coastline when industrial abandonment occurs

[@DeeRuss]

We want more old buildings

[@RoadTime]

I'll be the judge of that. I love the opening shot.

[@NonrevGroup]

The fact the mod is named “Bye Bye Homeless” 😭😭😭

[@joaosantiago4806]

Thank you. Your videos help with anxiety!

[@stephengrant2900]

I know im seeing this late but another one you should check out is the San Diego Trolley, does the same though it's been upgraded throughout the years. There actually is a short line railroad that connects the railyard south of downtown to a few buisness in the east end of the valley in El Cajon.

[@shady8205]

We visited this area last summer and took the train to NYC, it was very derelict industrial, has lots of large bridges, docks, waterways, canals, and cranes, and there is large marshland right before you get to the Hudson tunnel, not very nice area to be honest

[@wooderzz]

I was just watching city planner plays and he was mentioned that having carparks encourages people to drive. Maybe thats what you need?

[@marcussurleyadventures1928]

Sometimes get confused between your city and the satellite picture, city skylines2 looks great!

[@moshecohen127]

"Sweet Fancy Moses" is just wild tbh...

[@Charlie-gl2lx]

30:30 Don't add back the bridge, it felt unrealistic and unnecessary, it was unique sure but it didn't feel like it belonged in a "real" city

[@KAIDAX]

I really want to use Cities Skylines or the second one to make my own fictional city because of videos like this.

[@robthomas1993]

Reckon having the light rail not run on daffodil street but in between daffodil street and the foreshore would be more realistic to new light rail systems / old freight lines (being separate from car traffic), while also improving passenger journeys and being better for traffic flow.

[@stornasa-mi2re]

cant tell if you've done it here, maybe i missed it, but using invisible pedestrian path you can connect your paved pathways to the tram line and create a crossing at the node with the rode tools and thats worked well to make sure people use my pathways to my custom tram stations :)

[@spotlightartist1282]

City is looking great man!

[@pbarry1988]

Just for information (you don’t have to change it), but you can use a piece of one-way tram track at the end of the line instead of a double track (unless the other stop would be where the extension line would end)

[@sernik1547]

Been waiting for this video since the beginning of the series

[@JACKHOT4]

The light rail track right next to the shopping centre and car park reminds me of pyrmont/darling harbour

[@Recognice1]

You can hold down the Alt-Key when using move it to lock the axis. So you can maintain a straight line more easily

[@twodollarstwenty]

Cool I didn’t know that thanks!

[@caramelldansen2204]

You should connect that road next to the mall (the one you stubbed) with a pedestrian path to the nearby road (going underneath the tram tracks)😊

[@flyguy1237]

If you want more examples of weird light rail check out Denver CO's. There's some good but also some bad and strange station placement for the light rail as well.

[@thatgrantwoods]

i love the videos about public transit :)

[@NuckerIThink]

I like the idea of a pedestrian bridge over the bay

[@GustavSvard]

That bridge across the bay, replace it with a pedestrian one! Maybe the way that is a shortcut will make people chose it over walking along the side of the highway.

[@DocProctor]

I hope the devs give us a proper light rail in one of the coming DLCs, because that's something I really want in CS2

[@fufu892]

You have to add more beaches man. It looks so artificial without them. Plus, it could add more commerce. love your videos ❤

[@zekielmudo1641]

Maybe have another lightrail that takes a different path through the city. It might just be that the light rail isnt stopping close enough to where the sims wanna go.

[@munchaking1896]

"You don't expect me to spend hours making some custom..."

[@Thunk00]

The bridge was super cool but it's better to do without than to shoehorn it in to a spot that already has so much going on.

[@PylonJon]

It's GOOD that the Activity Plaza is reducing import costs!

[@goldber_g]

looking at your city and it legitimately looked like google earth

[@Dap740]

wow this city looks the most realistic ivw seen in this game

[@arminrichard1836]

I think the best way to do the old style converted rail is to make a modded network that bridges that gap

[@Cities-By-Maps]

The light rail looks great but if it ever gets really busy there is a mod for different size tram variants on paradox mods.😊

[@BirbarianHomeGuard]

The Newark subway is a light rail line in New Jersey

[@LHGalaxY]

I know its light rail but id like to see an additional stop downtown, my suggestion is to move the stop in front of the water up a block closer to the park and adding a stop in between it and the one by the mall. Probarly in the median where the grass is. ❤ hope you like the suggestion

[@fameonelove9271]

A rooftop plaza with little green spaces atop of the shopping Mall would add a little more character to the waterfront..... Just a thought for future content 🤷🏿‍♂️

[@FrosstyOfficial]

great video loved the fact the light rail isnt great but fits in with the US's shockingly bad public transport

[@twodollarstwenty]

Can’t make it too good!

[@tylr222]

i think the old bridge could be converted into a pedestrian bridge, kind of like pyrmont bridge across darling harbour

[@matthewanstey5185]

You still did it and it looks so much better than sydneys

[@Qualiall1]

the quay walls seem to form at 7.5 meters or less-I think you can bring it up to 8.5 and it will be normal. alternatively, you can draw a bit of track at ground level, then use move it to bring it up?

[@mrdriver2988]

SHOPPING MALL BUILT IN THE CITY LETS GOO 🗣🔥🔥🔥

[@xinlu2806]

I didn’t know you could change taxi prices 🤯 the amount of taxis is a huge problem in my city!

[@clarkelarsen3016]

Add the bridge back but as a breakwater then have a marina behind it!

[@davideckel3212]

I guess if you prefer to scale down your cities, you just need to scale down the distances between your tram stations as well ;) they are just too far away from each other right now. Thats why people prefer walking or just take the taxi instead.

[@TheAtomicANetwork]

just the decail work is already enough to make it look like an old train track idea. No need for the train track ghosting use. For now just the decals will do. However, in future we could have diff tram track options ;-)