I am not familiar with the DTG internal staff makeup but I think consideration should be given to hiring a dedicated Timetable Development Team for all the older routes. I would suggest a team of around three or four would suffice. This team should have the responsibility to ensure all the existing routes have the possibility of having realistic timetables included and so eliminate the often sparse timetables we have in many routes at the moment. Obviously this would come at a cost to DTG, so to offset this cost each enhanced timetable created by the team should be offered for sale as a Timetable Enhancement Pack. I would suggest a price of around £5 per route timetable pack. I would happily pay that amount to see some of my favourite routes improved in this way. I understand that all the stock may not yet be available but I would suggest that the nearest currently available alternative be used in the timetable layer until the actual stock becomes available. This approach would satisfy those of us who would like to see more traffic on our routes, while at the same time those of us who would rather only have strictly prototypical stock on the route would be free to forgo purchase and so keep both camps happy. So, would this be feasible?
If they could make it work financially, it’s a great idea. The routes with the busier timetables are really good fun. That’s the joy of Scenarios in TSC for me, there is always someone writing them to include new stock and make them seem busy. To apply that to TSW’s timetables would be awesome.
we have the man the myth the legend Joethefish who is a master at doing timetable work, not sure what else would need changing as he already does a great job
would the timetable enhancement pack just be a more realistic timetable to improve sparse timetables, or would it be something new, sort of like the Diesels of the Great Western add on for GWE?
Could be whatever DTG or public demand called for to be honest. I Hadn't really thought about that aspect but your question just opens up more possibilities for the idea going forward.
I dont think it would make sense to charge people for just a slightly more busy timetable thats more realistic, but something like Diesels of the Great Western does something alot more, giving a timetable from a whole new era, with different trains.
I think making timetables pay to make it busier might be an issue. If you don't pay, you get a partial timetable while those who pay get the complete timetable. This could go many ways and I don't think it's a good idea. I certainly wouldn't want dtg to create a light timetable on purpose and to leave the rest to the timetable team to complete it. A timetable should be busy from the start going forward with toggleable layers so everyone is happy and they don't have to go in and remake the entire timetable to make it complete.
Yes they should be busy from the start, but the reality is that all too often they aren't. Which is why we need a viable way to address the problem.
