Cities: Skylines 2

Players get a number of options when it comes to public transportation in Cities: Skylines 2. The Grand Village milestone unlocks buses and bus stations for free, but for everything else players must spend development points to unlock them.

Subways are particularly expensive. Not only do they cost four points, players must also buy trains for one and trams for two to reach it. On the bright side, subways are great for moving citizens around town through built-up areas without disrupting traffic or adding a lot of noise pollution. The only issue is that building underground tunnels in Cities: Skylines 2 can be unexpectedly difficult.

Subway Yards and Stations

Cities Skylines 2 Subway Stations — A potential surface-level subway station in Cities: Skylines 2.

To start building a subway, players must first find a location for the subway yard. While subways use similar cars and tracks as regular passenger trains, players should keep in mind that subway and train tracks are incompatible, as are their yards and stations. Players can encourage passengers to connect between the two types of mass transit by building their stations close together, but they can't make a subway train stop at a train station.

Despite all this, trains and subways share a lot in common. Players can build both types of track below ground or above ground, they can both handle large passenger loads, and their above-ground stations take up about the same space. The big advantage of subways is the below-ground station, which has a very small footprint on the surface and only generates low noise pollution.

Once the subway yard is on the map, players can start building above-ground and below-ground subway stations. These stations must all links back to the yard, because the yard is where new subway trains appear and where old ones go for maintenance. But while the yard must be on the surface, every bit of subway track that connects to it can be underground.

How to Build Subway Tracks

Cities Skylines 2 Subway Line — An overlapping conflict in Cities: Skylines 2.

Players can build subway tracks the same way they build train tracks and roads. And unlike the first game, players can build underground tracks anywhere between 30 feet and 150 feet below the surface. This means players can build subway tracks that cross each other without an intersection since they move along different elevations. Players can also build tracks below rivers and lakes.

However, this also means that players may have trouble connecting stations since the track they're building is at the wrong elevation. Shallow tracks may also end up conflicting with buried power lines and water pipes. Players should keep a few tips in mind when laying subway tracks:

The elevation function measures the relative depth at the starting point, but a single piece of track will try to maintain the same absolute depth at its end point. This means players may need to raise or lower the track's end depth to follow the map's contours.
Trains and subways both prefer long, gentle curves over sharp angles. Avoid using the straight-line tool mode when laying tracks.
Pay attention to the "no connection" popups, because it can be hard to tell how deep a tunnel is just by looking. Be sure to zoom in and check a connection from several angles before finalizing it.
If a piece of track needs to disappear, remember to hit the "underground" toggle for the demolition tool. Otherwise, players will destroy the buildings above the offending tracks.
Stick with the twin tracks when building. They don't cost that much more than the one-way tracks, and they allow subway trains to move around each other at stations and intersections.

How to Create Subway Routes

Cities Skylines 2 Subway Routes — Several subway routes converge at the center of the city in Cities: Skylines 2.

Once players have a few subway stations connected by tracks to each other and to the subway yard, the route creation tool should unlock. Once players create a circular route that connects two or more stations, the yard will dispatch one or more trains to service the route.

Each station has two tracks. Take advantage of this by having different routes use different sides of the station.
Citizens can connect between different subway routes to reach their destinations, so don't bother trying to create one big route that connects every station at once.
Citizens can also connect between different mass transit types, so players can maximize their public transport by setting bus or tram stops outside subway stations.
Subway passengers become pedestrians once they reach the surface, so make sure the roads above can handle them all. Pedestrian bridges are a helpful way to keep them out of intersections.

Cities: Skylines 2 is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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