Cities: Skylines - Mass Transit - Dev Diary 4: Monorails

Posting on behalf of Karoliina, who is travelling at the moment.

So, the monorails. I’ve written about all the other new public transport systems, so they are the last remaining one. The type in Mass Transit is an elevated monorail, basically meaning that it goes on tracks elevated with pylons. This allows the monorail to operate on top on roads and on water, given lots of options on placement and making sure it does not need much free ground.

[Blockierte Grafik: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?attachments/001-png.260662/]

The basics of the monorail are much like the metro. Build stations, connect them with tracks and then mark lines. The line will automatically start operating once it is looping. What separates the monorail from the metro, is that it can be built on top of roads. A new avenue type has been added with monorail tracks going on top of the section between lanes. This avenue is just like a regular road, so that you can easily upgrade existing roads to use it. While the monorail has stand-alone stations that work just like stations for any other transport type, the new and awesome thing is the station type you can place on top of a road. A lot of space is saved by building on the roads.

[Blockierte Grafik: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?attachments/016-png.260660/]

The monorail station comes with a piece of road, so you may need to remove some road or plan the stations very early. When you have chosen the spot where you want to build, place the station there and connect it with both roads and tracks to make it operational. The tracks also work without a road, so you can creatively connect sections of stand-alone track and sections of track on top of an avenue. You can even build on water, making outstanding scenic routes and saving space on land.

[Blockierte Grafik: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?attachments/007-png.260663/]

The monorail can turn at the end of the line, so you don’t need to construct loops in the ends. A station is enough, the monorail train will automatically change direction if that is how the line loops. You do need to mark each individual stop, but this allows you to also skip stops if that is what works best for your line. The train does not need to stop on a station every time it passes a station.

[Blockierte Grafik: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?attachments/005-png.260661/]

I personally find the elevated monorail one of the most interesting transport types in the game. Not only does it look cool on both tracks and stations, and you can also peek into the stations to see the trains stopping and even see the timetable screens, but it is also very useful. Fast means of transportation that takes up only minimum space and can be built on top of existing infrastructure, as well as in stand-alone sections, and mixing these freely gives a lot of possibilities on how to create just the type of monorail system that fits your city.

I can’t wait to see all the wonderful and weird monorail systems you will built!

Cheers
Karoliina