I know this route had been mentioned alot so I'm not going to beat a dead horse. But with WCML Trent Valley being at 108 miles it's possible to have Amtrak Surfliner. Starting at San Diego Santa Fe Depot and traveling up the coast to Los Angeles is 110 miles on the road. So give or take a few on rails. The issue is the trip with Amtrak is almost 3hrs and I know a lot of people don't want to sit for 3hrs on one route. Idk what do yall think.
Surfliner is a route that has been suggested a lot. It's a really popular line in real life. I haven't ever ridden a Surfliner Train, but it's on my train ride bucket list. The route has urban areas, great coastal scenery, and is a busy line with Surfliner, Coaster Commuter (in San Diego), and BNSF freight trains running through southern CA. Of course, if we get the Pacific Surfliner, we need Coaster and BNSF trains too. BNSF runs trains between LA and Fullerton and in San Diego. Coaster would probably be a route expansion. -Locos: PS and Coaster SC44 Chargers; BNSF GP60 Spartan Cab, ET44C4, C44-9W, and/or GP38-2 -Rolling Stock: BNSF freight equipment; PS Coaches and Cab Cars, plus Amtrak Superliner Coaches; Coaster Bi-Level Coaches/Cab Cars
The biggest obstacle to this (and any US route going forward), is who is going to build it? The status of DTG internal route building for the US is uncertain, with nothing on the Roadmap. Their main signalling guru has cut ties with them. Skyhook Games has stepped back from route building. HIS are an unknown quantity and still working on their little freight branch line. Of course they may surprise us and Surfliner will be the American route for the TSW7 launch.
I think it's more likely that it will arrive separately with two different DLCs: Metrolink from Los Angeles to Oceanside and Coaster from Oceanside to San Diego, including the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner separately. The problem is the licenses.
I know. Skyhook did a shitty job with Horseshoe Curve. Hopefully High Iron is planning to do it or some other 3rd party that we don't know of
Also, while the length may be similar to WCML Trent Valley, there's a lot more involved when it comes to resources used. Southern California is heavily populated and built up, especially the route bookends of Los Angeles and San Diego, and rail traffic is also very heavy. I wouldn't assume that Trent Valley fitting in a system, especially console, means that Surfliner automatically would as well.
