Route Netherlands: Utrecht - Zwolle, Featuring Either Ddz Or Virm, And Either Slt Or Sng-4, 2 Branchlines

Utrecht - Zwolle
(Including Maliebaan & Baarn branches)
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Structure
​

• Basic overview
• Story of the route (in which I will tell in detail how the route unfolds as you're driving it.
• Rolling Stock
• Services
• Future options
• Closing words

Basic overview​

Main section
Length: 90km
Stations: 15

Maliebaan branch
Additional length: 3km
Additional stations: 1

Baarn branch
Additional length: 9km (+6 if also connecting Baarn and Amersfoort)
Additional stations: 4

All self contained

(Hilversum mainly included for visualization purposes, probably unrealistic to also include, though would make for a route hopping option if one day TSC's work-in-progress Hoofddorp - Hilversum route also ends up in TSW)

Rolling stock

IC: NS DDZ or NS VIRM
SPR: NS SLT or NS SNG-4

The story of the route​

Utrecht – Zwolle, mainline​

Let’s take it from Zwolle, continuing from where we left off with Zwolle – Groningen, and make our way south to Utrecht Centraal station.

As we leave Zwolle station, we first pass the southern depot, at which the NS units for Zwolle are kept. Shortly after,we cross the Hanzeboog bridge over the Ijssel river, leaving the province of Overijssel and entering the province of Gelderland. Here, the line splits. We'll be going left, as the right leads to Lelystad and Amsterdam.

After this, we soon reach our first stop at Wezep. A quiet little town at the northern edge of the Veluwe.

From here, the scenery changes as we enter the Veluwe forest, the largest forested area in the Netherlands. And although on this route, we will stay near the outer edges of it, we will remain in the forest for the next 28 kilometers, longer than any of the other railways running through the Veluwe. But even at the edges, you’re still surrounded on both sides by a dense layer of trees and bushes.

Between Wezep and our next stop, ‘T Harde, on our left, we’ll be following a military training facility, clearly marked by fencing and signage. Approaching ‘T Harde, a small peripheral station outside of the town of ‘T Harde itself, we’ll notice a decently sized railyard on our left. This is the military railyard for the facility I mentioned earlier. Keep this in mind, because we’ll get back to this topic later.

As we leave ‘T Harde, and start moving away from the military facility, the trees will gradually start moving closer to the tracks as we move to Nunspeet. From here, we’ll remain in the Veluwe forest until we start nearing Harderwijk, before which we’ll hit a light speed reduction for the tight curve leftward.

As we get to Ermelo, we’ll now start leaving the Veluwe, as the scenery around us starts opening up more. While still mostly wooded, there’ll now be more room for fields and farms to appear besides the track as we pass Putten and Nijkerk.


At this point in our journey, we’ll find a shift happening, as when we leave Nijkerk, right as we enter Amersfoort, we’re now leaving the province of Gelderland, and enter the province of Utrecht. We’re now officially on the edge of the Randstad region of the Netherlands, which means that from here on, things will start getting more urban and start getting closer together.

Amersfoort has 3 stations. In order from where we came from:
Amersfoort Vathorst
Amersfoort Schothorst
Amersfoort Centraal.

Amersfoort Centraal is a major station and includes a giant railyard on which a lot of older and out-of-use trains are often stored, as well as being home to a maintenance fascility as well as some other things.

Interesting to note, Amersfoort Centraal was originally planned to be a major hub station in the Netherlands, connecting traffic from all over the place. Eventually this role ended up shifting to Utrecht, but Amersfoort is still a very busy station, connecting several other lines. As such, there are a lot of layovers here, and you’ll notice traffic starts increasing heavily from here on out. Additionally, optionally, if DTG chose to include this, there’s an additional 5km stretch of unelectrified single track on the southeast of the station going through the city, leading to a logistics company that occasionally hauls some freight up and down using 363’s among others. Though, while it would be fun, the inclusion of this little part is not of true necessity I feel.


Now, back on track, we leave Amersfoort CS on our way to Utrecht. Interestingly enough, for a bit, we’ll be back in a small forest. And again, on our left, we’ll have another military facility and railyard. With the slightest suspension of disbelief, this makes the route excellent for some freight variety, as those who have the Military Freight pack could move them around between ‘T Harde and Amersfoort, though the military freight pack is British, hence the suspension of disbelief. Though unfortunately, unlike ‘T Harde, on which at least the siding you enter into initially is electrified, the entire military yard at Amersfoort is unelectrified, so unfortunately, until a proper ATB-equiped diesel freight loc gets released for the Netherlands, there will not be any use to this yard. Though military freight can still be used towards ‘T Harde, including from Amersfoort.


Back on track again, we move on to Utrecht CS. We connect with the branchline to Baarn, before we reach Den Dolder and as we’re nearing the city of Utrecht, the towns are now much closer together.

As we pass Bilthoven, right as we’re about to enter the city of Utrecht, the tracks start switching around with a flyover junction before we reach an old diamond crossing. Just before the diamond crossing, there’s a switch going left joining to that track, which is the path towards the Maliebaan for the Utrecht Railway Museum. Right after the diamond crossing, we also connect with the track from Hilversum/Amsterdam.

After this point, we pass one last station, Utrecht Overvecht, before the track starts turning left, and we’re ready to drive into Utrecht Centraal Station, ending our run.

Fascinatingly enough, regardless of if we’re driving a sprinter or intercity service, while neither Zwolle nor Utrecht are IC terminal stations, the IC arriving at Utrecht will enter onto a dead end, changing cabs, and making a Y-turn to continue its journey. So even if you drive the IC, starting or arriving at Utrecht will still be a proper moment for shutdown or startup procedures.

Maliebaan​

Now to talk about the Maliebaan, to the Utrecht Railway Museum. It’s a small stretch of only 3 additional kilometers.

From Utrecht, right as we pass Utrecht Overvecht and the beforementioned diamond crossing, we stop our train at the marker and change ends. From there we’ll drive at a relatively slow pace right through the city of Utrecht, on our way to the Railway Museum.

While of course I’m not expecting necessarily anything else besides maybe some static props for the museum, I think it’s still a nice addition to the route to give it some color. And along with the Amersfoort yard, that would actually make this route the perfect ground for 3rd party dev groups interested in creating more historic Dutch trains, to create railtours with them.

Baarn branch​

The Baarn branch is only 9 additional kilometers, and 4 additional stations, single track, curving through the city of Soest, going quite closeby the royal palace at Soestdijk, though unfortunately just out of range to actually see it. It’s a nice short little route that is actually properly self-contained. It’s a nice little change of pace, and over half the route is already present in the form of the part between Utrecht and Den Dolder. Might as well just finish it as well.

I did create in my visualization of the route the station of Hilversum as well. And I would say I think it’s a good idea to also include the 6km straight stretch between Amersfoort CS and Baarn, as it’s only through fields and farms anyways. But going through to Hilversum is probably too much, as you do have to put your foot down somewhere when it comes to closing up gaps.

Rolling Stock​

InterCity​

NS VIRM

Probably along with the NS ICM "Koploper" the most iconic and most frequent Dutch train around. A very unique looking train with some beautiful curves. After the ICM, many people including myself have just been salivating at the thought of an NS VIRM entering the game at some point.
Along with having a very beautiful exterior, it also makes a pretty unique sound as it speeds up, somewhat resembling the sound of the BR 465 on SEHS.




NS DDZ (or, not and)

The rebuilt variant of the older NS DDAR/DDM units, along with the NS VIRM a staple on this route, both appearing frequently along with the occasional NS ICM, though recently it's been more NS VIRM's.

Interesting notable feature of the NS DDZ is that it's one of the few Dutch passenger trains, only one actually, not to feature a Scharfenberg coupler, instead opting for a BSI-coupling that's situated somewhat lower, allowing for also having a hook and chain coupler, stemming from the days of being DDAR units, which were (and technically still are, with the motorcar you'll see at the back) push-pull units.

While I would argue that NS VIRM would probably be the best fit, thing is, after NS ICM, NS DDZ are the next ones in line to be taken out of service. In fact, they're already very slowly being phazed out. With this in mind, unless DTG are internally explicitly planning on creating an NS DDZ add-on, or another Dutch route featuring NS DDZ, on top of this one if they went with NS VIRM, I think it would be best to include NS DDZ now that they're still around to gather proper reference material.

Both the NS VIRM and NS DDZ have a 4 car variant as well as a 6 car variant.

Sprinter​

NS SNG, 4 car variant

The most common train on most parts on this route. We already know the 3-car variant on Zwolle - Groningen. It may be the best option for the route, as while the suggested NS SLT below would be nice and something new, having to only work on a 4-car variant of a train that already exists in the game, might free up dev space to create extra quality and possible also the 4 and 6 carriage sets both of either the NS VIRM or NS DDZ.



NS SLT

While the SNG is the most used train on most of this route, both the Maliebaan and Baarn branch generally use NS SLT's.
While it would make sense to just switch those ones out for NS SNG's, for the purposes of including more rolling stock, it would still make sense as a choice.

Services​

(due to a max of 5 pictures in total, I will respond with a picture of the Spoorkaart 2026 to visualize the service patterns on this route)

Generally, traffic is 2 times an hour, both sprinter and intercity services.
Between Utrecht and Amersfoort, this route gets quite busy as traffic appears from multiple off-map destinations.
There's an additional train during peak hours between Amersfoort and Harderwijk.
The Maliebaan only serves between 10:00 and 17:00, not on mondays except for vacation dates. Don't recall on the top of my head if this one was hourly or twice an hour.

Future options
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This route features quite a lot of options for freight.
While passenger services are definitely more important and shouldn't be compromised on to make room for freight traffic on this route, particularly for military themes content and some diesel freight locs, this route has good options. Particularly for freight moves between Amersfoort and Zwolle.
In that regard, this route could also layer a few Vectron services at launch.

Additionally, as I did mention before. Because this route would feature both the Utrecht Railway Museum, as well as Amersfoort, which houses some old units that aren't really in service anymore. This route would do great for some railtours, should older trains, such as the beloved NS SGM ever be made.

Similarly, Amersfoort also houses the Eurailscout fleet, with the iconic inspection train locomotive based on the old Mat'64 design.
I'm sure it would be a great opportunity for a developer like Christrains to work on something like that, on a route like this, on which it would make great sense, even to just have it idling. As well, it would mean more misc traffic in the game.

Closing words​

All in all, I think this route would be fantastic in that it's varied both in scenery and traffic.
Unlike Zwolle - Groningen, despite branchlines included being about the same length, it's far denser with stations being far closer to each other. And while still pretty straight forward as a line, there's also more switches, parts with holding tracks, yards, so the route is far less dull and far more alive, while still within the general limits for a DTG-made route. It also provides for an opportunity for the beloved NS VIRM to appear in the game.

While I absolutely do still believe in the merit of my other suggestions, though De Oude Lijn, the way I suggested it, would be an absolute behemoth of a route, I do think this one could just be the logical next step from Zwolle - Groningen.
It includes a route hopping possibility at Zwolle, which isn't a necessity, but still nice. While also moving to the Randstad, as you see the gradual change from thick foresty areas on the first half of the route, to denser urban areas as you start getting close to the Randstad.

One of the upsides of the route is also that, unlike Zwolle - Lelystad - Amsterdam, this route does not feature ERTMS yet and as of this moment in time, still exclusively ATB, though technically it exists on Utrecht CS station itself, and on the rightward diversion after the Hanzeboog, but it's no problem I'd say if it's not implemented on those very last 200 meters or so on which we could encounter it. Meaning though, that the team does not yet need to grapple with the question on how to start actually implementing it.

I hope to see what you all think. And with some luck, this could excite the DTG team just as much as it does me, and perhaps this might just be the next Dutch route we see in the game!

Cheers!

Youtube Videos of this route​

(Edits: Some style choices, such as using "all-in-all" too much at the end. And forgot to add a few youtube links to drivers who filmed these routes)

 

As mentioned, here's the screenshot for visualization on the service patterns you'll see on this route: