1950

Normally when we start with a game, we look around on the map for an industry to set up a goods transport service or we look for some large cities to setup a passengers transport.

In this scenario there is no industry, there are no large cities, only small villages. The level setting of the game is "Hard".

Head Quarter

However, something has to be done. We decide to build our Head Quarter in a small village called "Dinsoft".

End of January 1950 the Head Quarter is ready. A few employees live in a neighbor village, Gadtown.

So we start the first bus service between Dinsoft and Gadtown.

First Bus

On February 5 the first bus arrives at Dinsoft, without passengers, so no money was earned.
On February 28 the bus at Gadtown brought two passengers to Dinsoft.
The earnings were $68

The bus has now  one passenger from Dinsoft, it . earned $36 in Gadtown, then back with 3 passengers it earned $54 in Dinsoft

Growing Village

Dinsoft has only 49 inhabitants, Gadtown 146. After the construction of the new Head Quarter and the start of a bus service Dinsoft starts to construct some new houses. The bus service goes on and in the mean time we pay some loan off, to lower the interest paying.

During the game we must watch the messages to see if somewhere a new industry is started.

Car Breakdown

Sometimes the bus has a breakdown, the motor smokes and the bus can't drive. A cloud of black smoke comes from the motor.
When a vehicle is long without service then the reliability decreases a lot. To avoid too many breakdowns, the time between two services can be reduced.

Power Station

On the road from Dinsoft to Lendhead there is a power station.

Such a power station needs coal.

Coal transport is a very lucrative one, but presently there is no coalmine. We have to wait...

1951

In the first year we spend a lot of money and only a small amount was earned.

The business does not yet go so very well. Even the running cost of the bus is higher then it's earnings. Anyway, a New Year is a good moment to save the game.

Company Value

The value of the company is $42,000.

Dinsoft has now 69 inhabitants and Gadtown 167.

The service level on both bus stations is 40%. This is not so good; we can try to improve this.

New Bus Service

The best we can do is to start another bus service from Dinsoft to Lendhead. Lendhead is quite a large village and has about 233 inhabitants.
A bus service from here will hopefully bring in some more money.

OK here it goes. First we have to borrow $20,000 more to buy the bus and then we have to build a bus station and another garage.

The first bus leaves Lendhead with only one passenger. It earns $28 in Dinsoft.
When it comes back in Lendhead there are 25 passengers in the bus.

To serve all these passengers we put the bus load settings to "full load", now the bus waits until it is full and then it leaves to Dinsoft.

The bus capacity is 31 passengers.

On June 3 bus is full and leaves for Dinsoft. It becomes now busy at the Dinsoft bus station, there are already two busses. The bus from Lendhead bus earns $856.

On July 1 we got a message that a new printing works is opened at Brubourne.

A printing works supplies crates with goods, but it needs paper. The paper has to come from a paper factory.

The paper factory needs wood. Wood has to come for a forest. Well there is no forest, neither a paper factory, so we can do nothing but wait.

Competiton

It's also time to mention that at the end of 1950 a competitor founded a new company. They had a look around and found no place to start a transport service, so they are not yet active.
The company name shows "Unnamed", but they are losing money due to the regular payments of the interest on the loan.

Operating Profit Graph

In the Operating Profit Graph, the yellow line, which shows the profit from the WWW Transport company, tends to go upward into the direction of the black figures.

But there is still a very long way to go.
Now we have a quick look to Dinsoft. As can been seen there are some new houses under construction.

Why are there no trains yet??

Well the transport businesses it not yet so good that we can afford to operate trains. At the end of this year we will have a look on the map to see if there are already some villages which are of our interest to start a train service.
Now we have two busses, Bus 1, Dinsoft to Gadtown still loses money, Bus 2 from Lendhead to Dinsoft makes money, it stands on $1,370. not so bad.

Low Reliability

It seems that Bus 1 has a problem, the reliability is only 13%. This is very low.
The bus needs to go to the garage for a service. We have to send it manual to the garage. When a bus is close to the garage, then click on the garage button.
If a vehicle is far away from it's own garage it tends to search for another garage. After it went there, it is sometimes difficult to find the original road back.
After the service, when a vehicles leaves the garage the reliability is back to the original value of 93%.

1952

The New Year 1952 arrived, see the financial overview. We have only a loan of $60000, it is time to look if a new service can be started.

We would like to start a train service, but the locomotives are still very expensive.

New Bus service

Time for a new service, lets start a bus service from Slindwood (135) to Kendhattan (209).
We have to borrow some more money to buy the bus.

In April 1952 the bus service is in operation

1953

A New Year arrives. The earning graph goes once more in the wrong direction. In fact Bus 1 still loses money.

We try to change the load setting of this bus to a "full load" at Gadtown.

Bus 1 doing bad

It is the first of March, Bus 1 is still doing bad. we close this line and make a new one, with the same bus, between Lendhead and Slindwood. Lendhead has continuously passengers waiting.
There are now 48 passengers. Almost two full busses

The bus arrived at it's new service and picked up 31 passengers from Lendhead. Just received a message about a new farm near Wrunthill City.
In October our money goes into the red figures, we have to borrow another $20,000 to keep them black. If we don't do this the company will go bankrupt within a few months.

Very Expensive

Why do we not start a train service?. Well, it's simple, the only one train we can buy is very expensive. The running cost is $6,616 per year and we need to pay $57,260 to buy it... In a short time there will come a cheaper train. That one we go to use.

Trains are better than busses, because busses can be destroyed by UFO's, they take sometimes a wrong road and the capacity is only 31 passengers. As soon as we have more the 50 passenger a train service can be started and brings up more money.

Bankrupt

Ai, we forgot to boorow some more money, now there was a message that WWW Transport goes bankrupt if performance not increases.

1954

The bus earnings are increased the last year, no more losing money.
All busses are positive. However, the total earning is still negative ($4,484) But it's not to bad.
Once more, this is a good moment to save the game.

Dinsoft Village

The village Dinsoft is still growing. You can see many new houses. The number of inhabitants is now 157.

Kendhattan has over 300 inhabitants, we set the bus there to "full load" to increase the service and to try to make some more money.

1955

If we have look to the Operating Profit Graph then it can be seen that the graph is still under the $0 line. We don't earn money. Even the total on the finance overview is negative ($8,010). Not so good but also not so bad, our only goal is to setup a transport company and to survive the first ten years, so that we can borrow more money and to wait for a good cargo transport service etc. You will see...
The life time of busses is about ten years. If we invest all our money in busses, then we have to buy all new busses after these ten years. That is always a big problem.

Train service

Very soon we have to start with some railway services, it's very good to prepare already some railway stations. Hurry up start with it.
A good choice is a passenger and mail train service from Lendhead to Kendhattan.

New Companies

The first of October 1955 is an historical date in the WWW Transport history. Three new companies are founded and they start to open some new services
However these new companies are established by the built-in intelligence of the game and that AI is not so very clever.

However, they can cause a lot of problems by blocking roads, building of railway station on your place etc.
In Lendhead, where the WWW Transport railway station was planned to come is now an airport of the competition. We have to look for another place.

OK we go to build a railway between Lendhead and Kendhattan. Bus 1, which crosses this railway will be sold.
This gives some money to buy the new train. If we keep the bus going here, then sooner or later it will collide with the train.

The operating profit graph goes still up and down, at some places it goes just over the zero line. Our loan is now $180,000, there is only a money reserve of $20,000.
The two busses left are set to full load at Dinsoft and at Slindwood. So they don't take away the passengers from the train.

The development of Lendhead goes very well. We got the message that it accepts goods. This is only at the larger villages. However, we have no goods to transport.

Special Offer

Also we receive a special offer for a new just developed train. It is a small diesel with a low price and a low operating cost.

The speed is low, but it can replace some busses.

With two passenger cars and a mail van they can make a lot of money, special on not too long distances.

The First Train

On the right you can see our first train. It is the small one from the special offer we had just before. It has one passengers car and a Mail Van.

The train is almost a kind of prototype. The reliability is low. To keep it in a good condition, the best is to force is for service each time it passes the depot.

1956

Another New Year arrived. We have now two busses and one train. The Operational Profit Graph goes slowly up. The two busses which were set for "Full Load" are reset to standard operation. This will increase the performance of the train. Let's watch the train sometime to see if it can make money.

Competition

The three competitors have all one aircraft. They all lose money, it's not so easy in this game. On July 2 we received a messages that the competitor Lendhead Transport is in financial problems.

Train Earnings

WWW Transport does it quite well. Here the financial report of the train. It made $4,412

At the Top

Another piece of information is given by the "Company League Table". As can been seen, the "WWW transport" is at the top.

Company for sale

Lendhead Transport is now for sale.
Its business is to bad to survive, however you need a lot of money to buy this company. For "WWW transport" is it impossible.

It is also not so interesting to buy a company which loses money

At the first of October, the small diesel train, which we had already via a special offer is now available for all companies.

1957

The first competitor, Lendhead Transport went bankrupt. The others will follow soon, maybe our "WWW Transport" too.

If we look to our financial situation then it can be seen that there are four negative posts. The train and road vehicle running cost are normal, we can't do a lot to decrease these.

Property Maintenance

The "property maintenance" can be lowered be the demolishing of the unused bus station in Gadtown

The interest can be lowered by lending as less as possible, or in other words, only borrow more money when the company comes close to a bankrupt...

On the right you can see the demolished bus station. The station name is still visible in grey, but will disappear soon.

Demolished Airport

The bankrupt company Lendhead Transport demolished it's airports and head quarter. The dark ground shows the former location of the airport. At the Lendhead Airport were 156 passengers waiting. They can now go to our railway station.

Tatfield Transport

On March 6 another new company was launched: "Tatfield Transport". Tatfield is quite a large city with already more the 700 inhabitants. It's very lucrative to start there a bus transport.
We wait and see...

More troubles

Now with Bigwig & CO. Don't worry, it doesn't harm WWW transport. It is only good for our business.

Due to the increasing number of passengers in Lendhead we had to add a second passengers car to the train.

October 1, Bigwig & CO went bankrupt and all it's assets were sold off. This will bring again more passengers to our railway stations.

1958

1958 arrived, no special news. The financial situation is not too bad. No great earnings, but only small losses.

It looks like it will be possible to survive a few years more to wait till the villages are grown and a good transport service can be setup.

New Bank

In Drontburg is a new bank under construction. A bank needs gold. This can be transported from a gold mine. Very close to Drontburg is such a gold mine, so immediately a new transport company is founded.

Gold Transport

This new company starts to build a railway between the new bank and the gold mine. This is done by the AI of the game.

You can see that this AI is not so very intelligent. The rails on the right has to be connected with the station. With a little planning the station would have been built with another orientation.

No Money

WWW Transport Company has not enough money to setup a new service there. The cost of an Armored truck is already $24,704. In addition two truck stations and a road has to be constructed. This is just too expensive.
At the end of June, the Drontburg Transport Company gave it up to construct the gold transport service. All railway station and rails are removed.

Another new Company

In September another new company starts it's activities near Drontburg. They are a bit more clever, so they can make the railway. Their first train earns $4,094

1959

The year 1958 is the first year where we really earned some money.

Not a lot, but the total is positive $1,982. We still wait for a opportunity to make some real money.

Stop Working

The rest of the year we watch the game.

Gadtown Transport

One of the competitors, "Gadtown Transport" wants to start a Goldservice from the Goldmine in Slindingwood to the bank in Dronburg. The bank is at the upper right and the Goldmine at the bottom left. As can been seen, several rivers has to be crossed and the terrain is also a bit hilly.

After a few months they give up and leave for us a nice flat area to construct later our railroads.

10 Years

At the end of the first ten years the WWW transport Company status.

The value of the company becomes each year a bit lower, we did not do any new investments in new services, only tried to keep the existing ones running without losing money. That is now OK, but in a few years our busses must be replaced.

Due too the inflation they cost now a lot more then ten years ago. We have really to start with making money.