Spawn rate

The spawn rate is a dynamic property of a station and expresses how many new pax the station will spawn per second for each of the three distance categories. The spawn rate is governed by:

• Demand governs the base spawn rate, separately for each distance category
• Station average satisfaction can increase or decrease the spawn rate compared to the base demand.

Demand

The demand level for a station is determined by:

• The reach of the station - the population covered by the station's area
• The time of day and day of the week
• The global Pax demand factor, set by the player in Options under the Company and Accounting menu

A station with a reach of zero will have no demand, and will never be chosen as an origin or destination. Setting the area property of a station to zero will create such a station. As of Version 1.6, population is the only factor considered - there is no directional flow towards city centres in the morning and away in the evening.

The daily cycle has peaks of commuter demand in the morning and evening, while regional and intercity demand are more spread out across the day. Weekends see lower demand, although intercity demand is higher.

The pax demand factor allows players to alter the spawn rate to match different areas of the world - public transport is more popular in Europe than the US, for example. For Europe, demand factors of 8-15% are considered realistic.