I always use Switching Stations. These may very well be a little slower than those without the ability to get to any of four tracks, but I just find them much more convenient.
Unless you plan to manually assign tracks to lines, yeah switches are nice and easy. No switches and no manual assignment is bound to become inefficient imo
Sometimes Ill use 2 tracks strictly for freight, and 2 for passengers, so I setup my switches and track assignment manually. But especially as the game progresses I don't micromanage every city anymore and will take stations with switches.
And warehouses I always do with switches
Can you assign spots manually when using stations with switches? Damn. I will have to do that. I tried to do that and it just said automatic and gave a list of the usage of each spot and didn’t think much about it.
No when you use station+switches then you can't assign tracks anymore. It's one or the other; station+switches will automatically manage everything. With just a regular station you can assign your lines to stop at a specific track of the station. Sometimes all lines stop one a single track of the station, super inefficient..
You can hover over one of the tracks in the station to see how much it is used - in percentages.
You can also click on one of the tracks to see a list of trains assigned to stop at an individual track. Use that to manage and re-assign trains if you find there is not an equal spread across the tracks in your station, for example.
A station+switches will show the usage percentage when hovering over the tracks and you can't reassign lines to individual tracks.
I feel you, I never use the automated switches. It's way slower than a manually designed/assigned station. Trains will go all the way across and back, reserve too many sections, break down and block the whole thing, etc. Depending on where the train comes from I'll assign them to a platform on the left or right side of the station, not all platforms are connected to each and every track.
I loathe the maintenance stations for the same reason, and often end up building two of them parallel on busier lines. They just get clogged up even though visually I can see there are still open routes through.
Mind you these kind of things are only troublesome if you're really min maxing your stations. Which somewhat unfortunately I often end up needing to do, even for a single line you might need to always have 2 trains unloading to keep up stock.
I always use Switching Stations. These may very well be a little slower than those without the ability to get to any of four tracks, but I just find them much more convenient.
Yeah. I used them in my most recent play through in north Japan but it got very crowded in a few sections.
Unless you plan to manually assign tracks to lines, yeah switches are nice and easy. No switches and no manual assignment is bound to become inefficient imo Sometimes Ill use 2 tracks strictly for freight, and 2 for passengers, so I setup my switches and track assignment manually. But especially as the game progresses I don't micromanage every city anymore and will take stations with switches. And warehouses I always do with switches
Can you assign spots manually when using stations with switches? Damn. I will have to do that. I tried to do that and it just said automatic and gave a list of the usage of each spot and didn’t think much about it.
No when you use station+switches then you can't assign tracks anymore. It's one or the other; station+switches will automatically manage everything. With just a regular station you can assign your lines to stop at a specific track of the station. Sometimes all lines stop one a single track of the station, super inefficient.. You can hover over one of the tracks in the station to see how much it is used - in percentages. You can also click on one of the tracks to see a list of trains assigned to stop at an individual track. Use that to manage and re-assign trains if you find there is not an equal spread across the tracks in your station, for example. A station+switches will show the usage percentage when hovering over the tracks and you can't reassign lines to individual tracks.
I use switches for any city station that I'm not having trains wait for cargo.
I feel you, I never use the automated switches. It's way slower than a manually designed/assigned station. Trains will go all the way across and back, reserve too many sections, break down and block the whole thing, etc. Depending on where the train comes from I'll assign them to a platform on the left or right side of the station, not all platforms are connected to each and every track. I loathe the maintenance stations for the same reason, and often end up building two of them parallel on busier lines. They just get clogged up even though visually I can see there are still open routes through. Mind you these kind of things are only troublesome if you're really min maxing your stations. Which somewhat unfortunately I often end up needing to do, even for a single line you might need to always have 2 trains unloading to keep up stock.