Seattle Metra

**Seattle Metra** is the eighth mission in the Second Century campaign of Railroad Tycoon II, as well as the second mission of the Modern Era act. The premise is the building of a metro system in Seattle.

## Overview

### Introduction Spiel

> *All of your rail success has marked you a valuable resource for sure. Now the citizens of Seattle want you to take a look at setting up a new metro transit system. Now I know it's not exactly what you're used to, but it could be an interesting change of pace. The city's successful expansion depends on your success. And, uh...bring an umbrella.*
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### Available Bonuses

* **Choice 1:** -40% Building Demolition Cost
* **Choice 2:** -15% Track Building Cost
* **Choice 3:** -20% Engine Purchase Cost

For the campaign version, the three bonus choices above are offered. Choice 1 is generally the best option, considering the vast expense of clearing a right of way through dense areas. Choice 2 can be useful - however, the monetary savings from only a few building removals can easily surpass the cumulative track savings bonus. Choice 3 should never be used. Whether intended or not, this mission automatically applies a 20% engine purchase discount and selecting this option will NOT reduce it further.

In addition, there is an extra bonus applied for the first year - calendar year 1977 only - that grants the power of eminent domain or 50% discount to each building demolition. Diesel fuel costs have also been doubled for the entirety of the mission, resulting in considerable expense in their operation. As such, electrification is the preferred option by a wide margin.

Under the commuter format, there exclusively four different cargoes. Understanding their interaction is paramount to establishing a profitable network. Housing type buildings generate commercial and industrial traffic. Commercial buildings accept commercial cargo from these residences and convert them to highly valuable residential traffic, demanded by housing. Industrial buildings accept only industrial traffic and also exchange these for residential cargo. The fourth and final cargo is airport traffic. Airport cargo will only be accepted by an airport terminal and will exchange them for demanded cargo at the next destination. Commercial buildings generate most airport cargo, housing to a lesser extent. Generating residential cargo is the main objective as it is the most valuable cargo type. You cannot select the type of cargo loaded, it will be done automatically by your trains. As such, trains generally tend to favor moving commercial cargo first, industrial second, and residential last. You can manipulate what trains will load by electing to cover buildings of only one type at their destination. For example, a medium size station serving only factories or ports will only accept industrial cargo. Thus, only industrial cargo will be loaded on trains from the residential areas it connects to.

## Strategy

This scenario can pose a considerable challenge compared to standard cargo maps. Aggressive expansion and careful train management will be key to winning the gold. Network efficiency and fast train movements are key to large profits. Commuter cargoes tend to expire and shed value quickly. Thus, building as straight of track as possible with minimal grades and curves are critical. The following strategy assumes hard difficulty with an objective of a gold win.

### **Starting Out**

Upon reading the mission screen, pause and begin scouting the map to familiarize yourself with landmarks and objective locations. You are required to connect Monroe, Issaquah, SeaTac Airport, Shoreline, and Bellevue. Shoreline is just above the Northgate and Greenwood area. The airport is much further south of central Seattle. Monroe is in the far northeast corner of the map, Issaquah is at the south end of Lake Sammamish, the last large body of water to the east. Bellevue is centrally located to the east of central Seattle. The highest concentration of valuable housing developments are in Northgate, Shoreline and areas north, east, and west of these towns. Industrial areas are scattered throughout, with highest concentrations in Bellevue and around the airport. Commercial buildings are highly concentrated in downtown Seattle and available throughout the map.

To begin, place a large station between Iverness and Ravenna that covers as many commercial and industrial buildings as possible. Try and line up this station with an outlet for your track that does not require extensive building demolition. Connect this station to a high concentration of housing at nearby Northgate or just above Greenwood. Ideally, you want two heavily residential large stations connected to Ravenna with as straight of track as possible. Next comes locomotive selection. With Siemens as your manager you receive a large discount to electric locomotives, stacked with the automatic scenario bonus of -20%. The E44 is a good choice, the E60CP even better. Starting with four trains pouring into Ravenna you should generate healthy profit for station buildings, double tracks, and expansion. As a general rule, each large station servicing commercial and industrial centers can safely support two residential large stations without sacrificing demand or cargo generation. As you add more, continue expanding into Northgate, Shoreline, and points north to gather more commuters. Limit trains to 3 cars for shorter routes, up to 4 cars for longer distance runs.

**Expansion and Victory**

From this point, you can either tackle Seattle to the south or build toward Monroe to the northeast. Building toward Monroe and over toward Bellevue helps create more profitable longer distance routes. Going through Seattle is slow and expensive, but necessary to reach the airport. A gold win is possible with either strategy. As always, tracks should be laid as straight as possible with as few turnouts and junctions as possible to keep things moving. Demolishing buildings for this purpose is a good investment. Remember, you need 2000 carloads moved by 1992 for the gold win. This can take a large number of trains to achieve, usually between 55-75 depending on your short or long route ratios. Moving down through Seattle offers ample opportunity for dense stations and lots of destinations for your commuters. Along the way, these stations will generate lots of airport traffic as well. Once you reach SeaTac, use a small station that only covers the terminal building to prevent interference from other buildings.

Reaching Monroe is relatively easy, with few buildings in the way. This long route can produce significant profit once established. You can then branch down to Kirkland and Bellevue. In 1980, you will be offered the chance to connect to Redmond, granting access to a bonus locomotive. Issaquah can also be reached at this time via the south end of the lake. Continue to check and add trains or rebalance stations as needed. By 1990 you should be nearly finished connecting all the required destinations and approaching the carload requirement. If you find yourself falling short on carloads try and add more short route trains to close the gap quickly.

**Scenario Version Objective:**

The campaign mission and the scenario both feature different rules, as the campaign mission pushes more for net worth and expansion, while the scenario is based more around the amount of cargo hauled.

This map uses a different cargo system; it uses the "commuter" cargo system, which is based solely around hauling passengers from residential areas to commercial and industrial areas, simulating you taking commuters too and from work. Houses and townhouses produce "Industrial", "Commercial", and "Airport" cargos, while commercial buildings, regular industries, and the Airport turn these into "Residential", which are demanded by the houses and town houses. The only cars that are available are commuter cars, and you cannot select specific types of commuter cars as you need them. Rather, the amount of traffic at each station will automatically determine what it think you need and put the appropriate cars on your train, depending on your route and what's in demand at the next station. Also, rather than connecting towns, you'll be connecting regions or "neighborhoods" in Seattle. A lot of these neighborhoods are packed closely together, so a lot of your routes may end up being rather short, with a lot of stations being built in close distance to each other.

The campaign mission starts in 1977, but the scenario allows you to start earlier than that in the 1950s.

### Ending Spiel

> *Good going. Seattle presents you with the key to the city in honor of your accomplishments. The West Coast has new economic power as a result of your efforts. Meanwhile, nuclear power seems to be the issue back on the East Coast.*
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**Strategy:**

Only electrics and diesels will be available, but operating costs will be slightly greater if you use diesels. This is entirely up to you. It would be worth mentioning that the cost for support structures for your stations will be down, as the only things that are available are the water tower, roundhouse, sanding tower, and telephone poles.

The best way to start is to look for a heavy industrial or commercial neighborhood with a large residential neighborhood next to it. The better starting areas are North of the Airport, like Ravenna. It would be recommended to build three stations and get two trains running at once. The FP45 is probably your best bet, and it would be ideal to limit your trains to three or four cars per train. This will allow your trains to be nice and quick, and you don't run the risk of milking your housing dry right from the start. Unless you have a lot of them grouped together, housing can take a while to produce enough "commercial" and "industrial" to fill up a full three or four car train when they're first connected. The Shinkansen will be available in both the campaign and the scenario, but it's not suitable for a map where you have a lot of stations that are close together, and stations that depend on housing that will generate cargo rather slowly.

If you are playing the scenario, and you are starting at the earliest possible time, engines like the GG-1, F3A+B, F9, and GP18 will be available. If you decide to go with electrics, the GG-1 is a solid first choice, but if you're going with diesels, the F9 and GP18 are good first choices. The F3A+B is okay for this map, but it can be a bit too sluggish at times to compete with faster traffic.

If you have a very long distance route, or want to run a long distance train to get from a densely housed area to an area in the heart of the city with a lot of commercial and industrial demand, the E44 is not a bad choice. You could get a lot of revenue from running a longer train of five or six cars, and while the E44 is not fast, it's a good endurance runner and a good hauling engine. While it's still available in the scenario version of this map, the GG-1 would be a good choice for a long distance run like this too.