Factorio Forums

It'd be nice for more active rail networks to be able to specify that a single train station has multiple stop points available for use, as currently there's no way for a train to work around the fact the destination is occupied.

Since it would only be used for more active networks, it should probably only be allowed to function in rail blocks that contain a single train station. When placed, it would act like that station, and any train wanting to enter the station can pick either the station (which could get priority) or a chain station.

This is already in the game - if you have multiple stops with the same name, a train will select the closest available one (actual routing is a bit more complicated, but that's the basics of it).

What you usually end up doing is slapping a lot of stops with the same name on parallel tracks, and call this whole structure a "station".

I'm not sure if this is what you originally thought but it might be cool to have a station that has multiple stops in series. The train would then pick the furthest unoccupied stop. If a stop ahead of a train already in the station got free the train would move to that stop.
I can imagine situations where this could be useful but mostly you can work around it just fine...
TRK

Not really sure when this series-station would be useful instead of just having multiple stops (Say Stop 1, Stop 2, Stop 3 etc. ).
Anyway, 0.13 is supposed to give us better control over train schedules, and I think it means allowing for conditional stops, which would make schedules much more flexible.

sillyfly wrote:This is already in the game - if you have multiple stops with the same name, a train will select the closest available one (actual routing is a bit more complicated, but that's the basics of it).

What you usually end up doing is slapping a lot of stops with the same name on parallel tracks, and call this whole structure a "station".

I wasn't aware this actually worked, does it actually show as a single station in the list too?

Yes, the list only has names, so if a few stops have the same name it would appear only once.