Some people said Sark didn’t need a sizeable bus station and a tangle of intertwined bus lines – that 55-seat PCVs were inappropriate on this small, sparsely populated Channel Isle, not to say illegal. Others predicted my latest City Bus Manager enterprise would never turn a profit. Did I listen? Did I Sark.
Having aced its 3×3 audition back in 2023, and fairly recently left Early Access and spawned its first add-on, CBM was overdue another gambol on the Corner. That gambol began yesterday night when, keen to test the game’s OpenStreetMap-reliant mapmaker, I mischievously typed ‘Sark’ into a searchbox and pressed Enter. Impressively, the request generated no excuses or apologies. In seconds the island’s distinctive outline, road network, and scatter of buildings and tourist sites, had appeared on my screen, and I was choosing what I thought was a sensible spot for a depot.
Not having played in a while, I found the clear, unobtrusive text instructions that accompanied my first thirty minutes of facility building, staff hiring, bus buying, and route setting, bally helpful. By the end of a confusion-free half an hour, Sarkbus had a bustling base of operations, a promising route map, a small fleet and staff, and a natty brand identity.
Like a parent watching their child cycle without stabilisers for the first time, I looked on nervously as SB01, driven by Morgane Fouchier, commenced the inaugural run of the imaginatively monikered Route 1.
I’d be lying if I said the takings from that initial tour didn’t produce a twinge of consternation in the breast of the Sarkbus CEO. Yes, it was the crack of dawn. Yes, Sarkites probably needed a day or two to get over understandable feelings of indignation. But the fact that Morgane only picked up three passengers during his first island-quartering sortie was somewhat worrying.
Trade was healthier on days two and three, but not nearly healthy enough to prevent red negative numbers appearing at the bottom of the daily financial reports. Sarkbus was losing around 1650 Euros a day. Something needed to change.
Realising my route map already took in most of the island’s main roads and hamlets, and unable to cut my (relatively) high staff costs, I suddenly remembered public service contracts. By relying on fixed-return state contracts rather than fickle/pitiful ticket sales, perhaps the company’s fortunes could be turned around!
My optimism lasted less then a minute. Somewhat unreasonably, the only contracts CBMs bureaucrats were willing to offer me, involved providing the residents of faraway Guernsey with regular bus services! Unless I can find an in-game way to transport my green and cerise beauties across seven miles of brine at the start and end of every day, Sarkbus will get no help from the Bailiwick’s taxpayers.
Is Sarkbus’s next stop Queer Street? Will the locals ever forgive me for clogging their lanes and spooking their horses? Find out in the next instalment of The Struggles of Sarkbus.
My island destination was Malta. Vastly more opportunity before expanding to other islands, and rather limited island expansion expectations too.
What kind of broke the game for me was being unable to track my buses as they traversed the local areas. Sure, I can see a top-down map but where are the 3D visualisations of the busses as they plod along their economically improbable routes, the bus stops full of angry queues, the fantasy architecture comically misrepresenting the village I live in?
I bounced off it a bit.
I can’t wait for part 2.
I’m not usually one for transit games, but setting up buses, subways, and underground express trains in a 5x-scale Bora Bora in Cities: Skylines was probably my favorite part of the game, so this might scratch the same itch.