Basic elevator

Basic Elevator

Standard elevator to move people between floors

Construction cost	$300,000
Maintenance cost	$3,000/day + $2,000/car/day (before upgrades)
Power	Varies with car activity
Size	4 tiles × 1 floor
Category	Elevators

A standard elevator can span 30 floors. It has average acceleration and speed.

You may have up to 8 cars per shaft (the limits may be reduced depending on your map and star rating). Each additional car costs $100,000.

Side note: When you add an additional car to a shaft, you are in fact widening the shaft to accomodate the extra car.

Upgrades

Elevators can be upgraded from the Configuration tab. Upgrades have two stages:

1. You can upgrade the elevator system up to 5 levels. An upgraded elevator system allows cars to also be upgraded, up to the elevator system's level. Each system upgrade costs 50% of the system construction price. Each level increases the system maintenance multiplier by 25% of its base amount.
2. Upgrade each car separately, up to the elevator system's current level. Each car upgrade costs 25% of the car construction price.

Every car level increases that car's maximum speed and acceleration by 25% of their base values, and increases capacity by the same percentage (rounded to a whole passenger). At level 5, a fully upgraded car has 225% of its base speed, acceleration and capacity.

Strategy

Use Basic Elevators as the general-purpose passenger spine. Add cars or a parallel shaft when queues and commute results show demand beyond the current capacity. Parking cars near demand centers reduces idle response time. Configure express-like stop patterns only while retaining a local route to skipped floors.