Cims are not Using Public Transport
Symptoms
Cims aren't using public transport
Specifically:
Vehicles are working fine and going between stops,
But cims aren't waiting at the stops; they're not using the transport service, or only a very small number use it.
Cause
This can be caused by:
Lack of comprehension of game mechanics
Mod-related issues
Problems with the stops or route
Solutions
Game mechanics
If you provide good transport service, cims are more likely to use PT. That means they need to be able to find good public transport from where they live (residential areas) to where they work (offices, industry, commerce), shop ( commerce), get educated (schools, universities, campuses) and play (parks, unique buildings, monuments, etc).
TM:PE highlights problems with public transport on the Public Transport Info View.
TM:PE highlights problems with parking (cims often drive to stations) on the Traffic Info View
Real Time mod highlights which buildings cims are struggling to reach on the Traffic Routes Info View
Mods:
Mods which change budgets can cause lots of problems:
AutoLineBudget - known to cause severe problems
Any other mods which affect transport budgets ( e.g. Total Autobudget)
If the budget mod has features for setting which budgets it controls, prevent it from controlling transport budgets. If it doesn't let you do that, disable or unsubscribe it then exit to desktop and then reload the game to see what happens.
Some mods change public transport preferences of cims, either directly or based on transport cost, for example:
Try disabling mods like that, exit to desktop and then reload the game to see what happens.
Roads:
Roads with pavements are essential for your transit infrastructure
No pavement = pedestrians can't navigate the road (or even park on it in most cases)
Highways and some other roads don't have pedestrian pavements
There might be some workshop highway assets that have pavements?
Elevated roads generally do not support 'stops' on transport routes
Elevated Stops Enabler removes that limitation
Transport buildings:
Building must be within 2 zoning tiles of a road to connect to the road
If the road has no pavement, pedestrians can't access the building and thus won't use the transport
Some workshop assets are broken
Some buildings don't define spawn points where cims enter and leave the building
Subscribe and enable Spawn Points Fix to solve that
Vehicles
Check passenger capacity of vehicles using Advanced Vehicle Options mod, and compare with Vanilla Capacities
A much larger capacity than vanilla can confuse the transport AIs, and they do all sorts of weird things
A smaller capacity is generally not a problem as far as we can tell, although sometimes the AI might overfill a vehicle
Converter mods:
If you use 'Converter' mods to change transport type of buildings or vehicles, check the settings:
Traffic Manager: President Edition (TM:PE):
Make sure you are using TM:PE 10.21.1 or later; earlier versions had bad bugs in Parking AI
In Policies Settings, set Vehicle restrictions aggression to Low - if that works, your Vehicle Restrictions are causing the problem.
Check your Junction Restrictions - in particular, disabled pedestrian crossings can sometimes confuse the pathfinder
Metro Overhaul Mod
Metro Overhaul Mod (MOM) users:
Note: MOM v9 has now been released so the suggestions below might not work any more.
Make sure your metro stations are shorter than 192 meters long (try default 144m)
If they are longer it sometimes breaks the AI and cims will stop using the station
Check any pedestrian path connections that might be needed for the station
If problems persist with MOM, contact the author of MOM
Was it Fixed?
If not:
You might have hit vehicle or citizen limits, see: Vehicles not spawning
If you feel it's an issue with TM:PE, please let us know: Report a Bug
Something else? See: 👉 Troubleshooting