South Wales and the West of England have been underrepresented in Train Sim World for a long time, and it’s about time we brought them properly into the game. The Swansea - Bristol Temple Meads corridor offers a perfect mix of regional and intercity operations, scenic coastal and urban views, and cross-border travel challenges. Wales - England would be such a fantastic add-on to the series adding the cross-border travel for other players. With the recent availability of CrossCountry licensing, we now have the opportunity to include realistic long-distance intercity services alongside Great Western Railway and Transport for Wales operations. This means players could drive everything from regional stopping services to full intercity runs reflecting real-world operations and providing a rich, varied gameplay experience. This add-on would be in the modern day era - A 2025 timetable would be ideal. A nice addition would be to add Bristol parkway as it would cause a lot of variation between different level of services that are off-route destinations, this would be a fantastic opportunity to use the voyager from Bristol. Route Overview Total Length: ~96 miles Operators: GWR: Regional & intercity services TfW: Regional DMUs XC: Long-distance intercity services Core Stations: Swansea Llansamlet Skewen Neath Briton Ferry Baglan Port Talbot Parkway Pyle Bridgend Pencoed Llanharan Pontyclun Cardiff Central Newport (South Wales) Severn Tunnel Junction Pilning Patchway Bristol Parkway Filton Abbey Wood Ashley Down Stapleton Road Lawrence Hill Bristol Temple Meads Optional Off-Route Destinations: CrossCountry services continuing beyond Bristol Temple Meads to cities like Birmingham or Nottingham, which could be included as non-drivable services for timetable realism. This route would feature a strong mix of operators and traction. GWR services would mainly use the Class 800/802s, with the Class 66 handling freight. Transport for Wales could introduce either the Class 175 or newer Class 231, with Class 150s or 153s layered in for local runs towards Newport. With the CrossCountry licence now available, the Class 220 Voyager would operate long-distance services into Bristol, while the Class 170 could appear at Cardiff Central for connecting XC workings. As a DLC, the GWR Class 158 would make a great addition for shorter regional runs between Swansea, Cardiff, and Bristol - The New units would ultimately reflect for this route for use of more units with TfW branding and using the TfW infrastructure. I would charge £34.99 to make this a fair priced route. Class 802 GWR (Leaving Swansea) - Not my photos' Class 231 TfW - (At Cardiff) Class 175 - TfW (At Newport) Class 158 (GWR - DLC Content) (£15.99) All Layers for the route including the ones' mention in this post; Class 150/153 - TfW (Playable Welsh Part of the line) Class 231 / or, & Class 175 (Playable Welsh Part of the line) Class 150 - GWR (For local Bristol services) Class 158 - GWR (Playable DLC) Class 802 - GWR (Playable Full Length) Class 170 - XC (Playable severn tunnel junction or newport to/from Cardiff Central) Class 220 - XC (Playable - Bristol Temple Meads - Bristol Parkway) Service Variety This route would offer a huge range of real-world services and gameplay. GWR would cover the fast Intercity runs between Swansea, Cardiff, Newport, Bristol Parkway, and Bristol Temple Meads, along with some regional stoppers if the Class 158 DLC is included. Transport for Wales would add regional and semi-fast services, with the 175s or 231s operating between Carmarthen, Cardiff, and Bristol, and local runs using 150s or 153s towards Newport. CrossCountry would bring long-distance journeys with the Class 220 Voyager running into Bristol Temple Meads, and shorter Cardiff-based layers with the Class 170. Freight traffic would also be represented with Class 66s through the Severn Tunnel, providing additional variety and operational realism. So we talk about the class 158 as DLC but why do we want another 158? The thing is Class 158 already exists in-game for East Midlands and ScotRail, a GWR variant would still make sense because it has distinct regional features and use cases. The GWR units have a different interior layout, livery and in some cases updated cab equipment compared to the northern and Scottish variants. They also work in a completely different operational environment running coastal and regional services across South Wales and the West of England, which would give players new routes, sounds and service patterns to experience. Also the Class 158 could layer into the recently released Riveria Line. If anyone has any ideas how this suggestion could be handled or improved feel free to type down believe I'd love to hear your thoughts!
I'd love this route but to include the 175 it'd need to be set in 2023 or further back since they were retired recently.
Oh I do apologise, my local knowledge is only really on the Bristol section of the route and not the welsh side But thank you for letting me know, in that case it'd be nice to see the 150's go to swansea then too because I think GWR doesn't run 150's up to wales anymore (iirc)
There’s now one 09:45 220 XC service from Cardiff to Edinburgh which would be playable between Cardiff Central and Newport only. Next stop would be Chepstow. If using tfw older trains then classes 158, 175 and 67-mk4. For newer trains classes 197, 231 and 756 maybe the 67.
Oh 100% it'd pretty cool to use this unit on this route just so we can use a lot of previous content for upcoming DLC's - Manchester Commuter was a great example however the route was quite short
Nah that is right bs, it would make more sense for it be an actual new train than a reskin, we already have two in game
There wouldn't be any extra carriages to model if a GWR 158 was made as the 3 car ones are actually made up of 3 driving units, meaning you have a cab in the middle of the train. Ideally there should be a pack which contains a few variants of the 158 as it wouldn't make sense to sell the same train 99 times. The Scotrail 158 was the same price as a completely new loco, might I add.
Never seen a 3 car 158 with 3 driving coaches, but I've seen some Northern 150s like that here in South Yorkshire and they look incredibly cursed
Yes the Wessex Trains et seq., three car 158’s were created by splitting two car sets and attaching the individual cars to other two car units, rather than a genuine centre car as built for some other Regional Railways operators. I’ve also noticed on recent outings a tendency for GWR to now run 4 car formations (2 x 2 car) on Cardiff to Portsmouth services thus finally providing a decent amount of capacity - @280 seats.
Didn't say it was right. I said it'd make more sense than charging such a price for what would otherwise be a simple livery change.
But it just wouldn’t when they could easily make one of the two TFW trains as the side dlc which would make more sense
Probably too long of a route to develop of TSW. I see Cardiff to Swansea or Cardiff to Bristol and temple meads having a better chance as stand alone. Just imo
Charging more for an extra carriage makes more sense than charging more for a livery change. In case you didn't read, that's the point I'm making. I'm not saying it makes sense at all, but it's the more sensible option.
Still a really stupid point since with the scotrail one we got 2, 4, 6, and 158+170 formations for under £15 So why would a 3 car version cost the same when it adds less? also in general it makes no sense for the 158 to be a side dlc again?
I would definitely welcome the 231’s over the 150’s or 153’s any day. I wouldn’t care or want the 158 on the route because DTG would make us spend £11.99 again on a bare bones reskin again.
What extra formations? All the ScotRail 158 currently does is provide a few layers and has some scenarios.
Free roam formations and was mentioned at one point as a timetable feature since they sometimes run like that on Fife, this time I’ve actually seen that
Yes, but the ScotRail 158 doesn't exist on Fife in timetable mode yet. Which essentially makes it a paid reskin at the moment.
