Subway Builder

A Realistic Subway Simulation Game

What is Subway Builder?

In Subway Builder, you're tasked with managing a city's transit system. Build tracks, stations, and lines to get your passengers to work on time. You'll need to balance the needs of the city with the constraints of the real world.

Features

Real-world passenger simulation

Millions of commuters are generated from Census and Redistricter data. Each commuter decides how they travel based on driving time, cost, and the quality of the subways you build.

Realistic construction challenges

Build your system under realistic constraints and costs. Tunnels, viaducts, cut-and-cover, all have trade offs. Building over existing buildings has it's own costs and challenges as well.

Delays and disruptions

Find the right balance between cost and time. Too many trains on a line or an overcrowded station will cause delays.

Frequently Asked Questions

When will it launch?

I'm aiming for a public beta release sometime by the end of 2025 but I can't make any promises.

Which cities will be included?

On game launch, only American cities will be included as the simulation is based on US Census data. I haven't decided yet which cities specifically though.

What will it run on?

Windows, Mac, and Linux.

How much will it cost?

Somewhere in the range of $30-40.

Will it be on Steam?

No. Subway Builder will only be available on subwaybuilder.com.

How is ridership calculated?

The US census records home and workplace locations. The game generates millions of commuters with homes from that and then uses a distance-based gravity model to assign them all workplaces. They're also assigned times to leave to/from work in a distribution similar to real life.

At the beginning of each commute they decide whether they should walk, drive, or take the subway. The driving/walking times are pre-calculated but the transit times are obviously calculated from the subway system you build. This is done by running a RAPTOR pathfinding algorithm which is the same that Apple/Google Maps use. That is to say, the algorithm takes into account everything. Train frequency, walking times, transfers, etc. The algorithm returns the fastest path and the time it takes.

This decision is then made based on how long each commute method takes, how much it costs, and the value of their time (different commuters can have different incomes).

If they decide to take the subway you can follow their commute (and thousands of others simultaneously) as they get to work. If a train is delayed or cancelled, it will affect their commute and future commuters will take that into account.