Wiki / Running a network
Fares
Fares are the only lever in the game that changes demand without changing the network. They are also the easiest to get wrong.
A fare is a curve, not a number
trainsworld does not have a single ticket price. It has a fare curve: a base fare for the shortest trip, then a series of stretches where the fare rises by a rate per kilometre.
Drag a node to change a rate, drag the end of a stretch to move where it begins, and double-click a node to take it out. Every change is undoable with Ctrl+Z. The graph shows the fare at any distance as you hover it, so you can check what a 6 km trip costs before you commit.
The shape you choose is a policy decision:
- A high base fare charges short trips a lot. That is good if your network is for long journeys and bad if you want local ridership.
- A steep curve makes long trips expensive, which protects your revenue on intercity routes but can push people to the car.
- A flat-ish curve encourages long trips. Good for a regional network, expensive if your trains are then full of people who could have walked.
Everything else that adds to the fare
| Charge | What it is |
|---|---|
| Transfer fare | Paid each time a trip changes lines. Set it low to encourage transfers; high and you punish exactly the behaviour a network is built for. |
| Bus fare multiple | A multiplier applied to bus rides |
| Ferry fare multiple | A multiplier applied to ferry rides |
| High-speed fare multiple | A multiplier applied to high-speed lines |
The mode multiples are how you price quality. High-speed is the clearest case: it costs much more to build and run, so a higher multiple is how it earns. But the same rule applies to the whole model — the fare is part of the comparison, so a high-speed premium that is too high sends people back to the car.
Transfers should be cheap
An interchange is where a network creates value. Every fare rule that penalises changing lines works against the thing you built the interchange for. Set the transfer fare low, then fix the crowding that follows with capacity.
Country fares
Each country has its own fare level, expressed as a multiple of a reference country you choose. The finances tab lists them and lets you set one country as the reference; the others are quoted relative to it. Changing the reference does not change what riders pay — it changes the yardstick, which is useful when you are building across a border and want to know whether one side is unusually cheap or expensive.
What a fare change does
The finances tab has an estimated impact panel for fare changes. It is a model, not a promise: it tells you what the change should do to ridership and revenue before you apply it.
The mechanism is worth stating plainly, because it explains the counter-intuitive results:
The fare is counted as minutes in the same comparison that decides whether someone takes the train.
So raising a fare is equivalent to making the trip longer. Riders with a good alternative leave; riders without one stay and pay. The network that gains most from a fare rise is one with no competition — and that is usually a network that has already won.
The death spiral
Raise fares to cover a loss → riders leave → revenue falls further → raise fares again. It is avoidable: check the estimated impact, and compare it with the alternative — cutting the service that is losing money, rather than charging more for it.
A sensible default policy
- Set the base fare low enough that a short trip is competitive with walking.
- Add distance rates that reflect your costs, so a 30 km trip pays more than a 3 km one.
- Keep transfers cheap. A network should not charge people for using it as a network.
- Price high-speed as a premium, but check the estimated impact before applying it.
- Revisit after every big build. The right fare for a five-line network is not the right fare for a fifty-line one.
The finances tab reports fares per day and the fare scale, so the effect of a change is visible the next day. That is the number to judge a fare policy by — not the headline multiplier.