Service areas for points not directly on lines

Question

I am using ArcMap 10.4 to find network distance service areas to train stations on a road or footpath (not rail!) network.

My problem is that Network Analyst locates all stations, but solving the analysis does not build service area polygons unless I manually move stations onto a road junction first. For example, the gap on the left here is for a station I didn't move:

From the initial road featurelayer, I ran the Integrate, Feature-to-line, and Split-line-at-point tools to get valid segments.

I created the Network Dataset to not model turns; use 'Any vertex' road connectivity; not model elevation; not establish driving directions; and build service area index. On solving, I also tried increasing the search buffer in the service area properties as here: https://gis.stackexchange.com/a/171425/88199.

What crucial step am I missing?

I'm working through the problem on the desktop before moving on to a code solution. I'm also open to pgRouting or QGIS if anyone has suggestions using either of those.

Answer 1

I found the missing step: in the Service Area Properties window, Network Locations tab, the roads layers was listed above the ND_Junctions layer, which includes vertices for road intersections, closest point to a station etc. I set this as the only network location to snap to (and checked shape, middle and end).

After this, I still needed to recalculate location fields for all facilities before solving, as pointed out by @Alex Tereshenkov in comments.