[Macha]

There is an improvement in the options called cargo distribution (cargodest for short) which assigns them a destination among available ones on your network when they're spawned. This is a bit unlike simutrans where destinations are generated and then passengers only appear in your stations when it's reachable.

There were attempts to introduce more simutrans-esque behaviour in patches called cargodest, but it proved to be unacceptable performance wise for the map and network sizes that OpenTTD uses.

[tasuki]

So, with cargodest does the cargo change from a bus to a train?

And without cargodest, what is the point of OpenTTD? I honestly struggle to understand this game if passengers appear randomly and pay the full price to go wherever you like to take them.

[Macha]

Cargo can change from bus/trams to trains anyway, either from manual orders or with cargodist.

It's probably also worth mentioning that cargo quantities are usually more limited at first. Primary cargo especially grows slowly. Passengers can grow very quickly if the player understands the city growth mechanics (the count is a function of city size), but even with cargodist if you make an actual network they will dictate their stop.

For me the appeal is more the mid-late game micro-optimisations, like how to make a junction work when there's constant incoming trains.