I figured we start a thread to speculate what US route might release with TSW4. I have two routes in mind. With NYT getting a new timetable and still in development, which means it will probably release with of after TSW4, I believe is either The New Haven line or a new LIRR with possibly Babylon branch with the M9. That’s my speculation
These two lines are certainly the frontrunners, as has been repeatedly speculated upon by myself and others. In fact, I would be quite surprised if the answer was not one of these. If we get a LIRR route, I would expect some sort of revamp like SEHS. I would not expect the same tired NYP assets recycled from the original LIRR in a new TSW4 game or Big Summer Pack. But, if LIRR is redone, would DTG then leave the old assets in NYT? Or would they revamp NYP for NYT as well, and is this another reason why NYT improvements are being held? A new LIRR route raises a lot of questions. This is why I am leaning towards New Haven. I think the few inadvertent "hints" that have been dropped point in this direction. And we can finally get the M8 that we asked for. To be sure, I am buying either one of these DLC, barring another NYT-style debacle.
I'd love either the M8 or M9 to be honest. The only US routes I like are the East Coast Passenger ones, so that would be great.
For New have line: Here’s the route map from TSC Not sure if we would get the entire Haven line. So looking at the current New haven to New York schedule. What I see is all Services originating from New haven except one stop at Stanford. According to the map Stanford is 33 miles from Penn station and takes average of about 1 hour for services. So here's the breakdown of the services: From New Haven(72 miles) 42 Services From Stanford (33 miles from Penn) 101 services which includes the 41 services from New Haven which one doesn't stop here from Harrison (22miles from Penn) 10 services New Rochelle (17 miles from Penn) 3 services Greenwich (28 miles from Penn) 1 service They could include oak point yard, hell gate bridge for the Amtrak runs that go to Penn It would include the NEC tracks from New Rochelle to Penn Station for Amtrak services.It would be another route for the Acela, ACS-64, some freight, lots of layering opportunities. \
With Joe adding the (500+services)LIRR layer to NYT dlc it shows the potential for either an update or new LIRR dlc would look like. I did some figuring and this would be a 2023 LIRR timetable with Gran Central Madison, Penn station and Atlantic avenue. Would like this DLC to be extended to Huntington, Ronkonkoma, and Babylon. So here are the estimates of services: LIRR Penn station 350 Grand Central Madison 292 Atlantic avenue 168 LIC- 24 Dead head/SSY/WSY-100 Amtrak/Acela/NJT/SSY AI- 675 Total services with all layers and AI- 1,609 services Again this is just a rough estimation. The funding for this would come in the form of a pay DLC (new route to include M3,M7,M9) loco DLC (DM30AC with C3 bilevel cars) the new Grand Central Madison operations uses new area at sunnyside next to the current NJT and Amtrak tracks to store the trains during the day. If they do make a new LIRR route would include Penn station, Grand Central Madison, west side yard, sunnyside yard, Long Island city, hunterspoint avenue. Total passenger service would include 350 to and from Penn station, 292 to and from Grand central Madison. Amtrak and NJT would be layer in as AI.
New Haven would be practical and would be a good opportunity to introduce the M8. Although I think a revamped Long Island rail Road would be very nice to introducing maybe an additional one or two branch lines, and of course the M9, diesel DM 30 AC, and maybe even some freight. Another one I would love to see, is the P 42 but not too familiar with all of the lines in the run on.,
I would be shocked if a New Haven DLC did not originate at "Stamford." The time to NYP is as you say approx 1 hr which is just what DTG likes. Stamford is an Amtrak station stop so Acela could stop there like at Trenton. They could reuse old NEC just like in NYT so you could drive Amtrak to NYP. There are potential LIRR, MNRR, and freight layers. For DTG it's a win-win-win-win-win. In fact it is so obvious that we might question DTG if this is not the route that we get! But if it goes beyond Stamford I will be shocked. Flabbergasted even.
It goes with the “ digging deeper holes meaning that Matt was talking about which would have all assets needed. But I have been wondering why hold off NYT. Could it be because of a new LIRR and it would had taken away launching The New NYT with All those LIRR AI trains going in and out on Penn…..
LIRR Penn Station amd Grand Central terminal to Hicksville Port Washington and Babylon. During the Rush Hours Babylon Wantagh trains are express from Penn Station to Jamaica. NJT possibly the RVL
We haven't no american freight rout since alsmost a year. And freight is prototypical for American Railroads and extremely impressive because of their raw power. So we definitely need a new American freight route. Equally if it is Mojave, Mulan or at the Rocky Mountains or Alaska Railroad. Heavy freight please.
I think a Babylon branch would be great. But either route would be great. I say the M8 fits with the current theme of dual voltage loco with the 700,M8, and possibly the Vectron which I can’t remember is is listed code is dual voltage or AC/diesel
Hudson line has beautiful scenery but wouldn’t be able to use the Acela, AC64 which I think they would want to do. So my money would be on the M8 as the main loco
I'm going to throw a wild card in here for the West Coast. Either Los Angeles to San Diego (or at least part of it) for Pacific Surfliner or they got a Metrolink licence and doing Los Angeles to Palmdale via Soledad Canyon. Or (maybe) they have been watching what Run 8 are up to and are doing something in Florida.
Amtrak Surfliner would be cool! Nice areas besides the Pacific beach, Genisis Diesel locos and BNSF freight trains. Could be the best american route with the most variety so far.
" Hiawatha " from Chicago to Milwaukee. Nearly 90 miles but only 5 stops/stations. Freight and commuter traffic can be layered in. Would require a new Charger loco and Horizon cars. Likelihood not high but TSW needs to bridge the yawning gap between the East and West coasts.
I think a TS4 route speculation thread is a little premature; we don't even have any official confirmation of TSW4 yet If TSW4 does release this year though; I would like to see either the Metro North Hudson Line or an extension of the NYT route up to New Haven
Not in any order Donner Pass Marias Pass Stevens Pass Unnamed mid western route possibly Byron from Chicago Ny New Haven Florida (so flat it is boring and I have never bought it on TSC) New York Subway Los Angeles Subway with Lethal Weapon 2 easter eggs ROFL (wouldn't it be funny to see Mel Gibson jump on the front of your train holding a gun! LOL see Lethal Weapon 2 first) Something that is outside of the box. Unlikely to see a steam route. Maybe 2 years time. Idea... possible North or South Carolina or Kentucky route single track with plenty of rural scenery. Kansas City to Flagstaff (somewhere in between of about 130 miles) where you can drive BNSF freights and Amtrak. Canadian Mountain Passes is also possible but that was done by 3rd party dev right? Personally I think Chicago to Byron would be epic, it is single track and driving a 1.5 mile long freight train and stopping in a siding for a meet. Then passenger trains between Chicago city and Pinegree Grove (I know Metra logo cannot be used etc) but still the Caltrain stuff is very similar. Having been on passenger trains in the US I just don't understand why you would want them. Personally European and Japanese trains are 10 times better and more fun. I keep an open mind though and enjoy anything mostly. I would much rather see a few Tokyo routes than anything from the US for a year! Donner Pass would be nice or Marias but would want an extra 20 miles on the flat side (east on both) for some higher speed running. High speed running on US freight such as hot container freight trains are fun to drive (and easy too!) as they aren't heavy. This is something DTG needs to adjust. The tonnage on a container train is about 35% of that of a coal/grain train (or in Australia's case a iron ore train as well).
Not sure why Donner is such a popular request, eastbound it's a Notch 8 slugfest from Colfax to Summit, and the route probably won't be its full length to Sparks and would only go as far as Truckee.... There is also pretty much nothing but trees, and not much in terms of landmarks. There also isn't much for local industry...
Agree, Donner in reality is not that great. Bought the Run 8 version and, not helped by the very poor terrain texturing, it’s not that spectacular either in terms of operation or scenery.
I remember a scenario (I think it wasn't included with the route it might have been a workshop?) that was a SD60M with oil tankers. Very nice. I think in TSW3/4 it is going to so much better than TSC, like Cajon Pass is. I love the Southern Pacific locomotive paint scheme too. If they did Cajon Pass in its full entirety then Donner Pass can be done too.
For the Babylon Branch the stations will range from your 1930s-1960s builds and then the newer 1975-1980 designs One way to tell them apart is the metal pole
I hope they mix up things and give us a US passenger route. I don't know anything about the US rail network but what would be a nice Acela route for the base game?
We used up all available good options, anything further south runs into license issues with SEPTA (Unknown) and MARC (Unbranded in TSC) New York to New Haven doesn't give much in terms of speed with the Acela, and there isn't really anything between New Haven and Providence...
So I have seen almost everything Amtrak high speed related already? The US really needs to upgrade their rail network.
If you have the money to get everyone to move out of the way plus all the paperwork to get the project done.....
I saw some video's of how the rail network is funded and how rail is very different from Europe so I can't imagine it happening soon. To Europeans like me it seems a no brainer to get the project done ASAP. Not only will Americans benefit from it, we will also have better gameplay What about modern trains? What are the most modern US passenger trains? Do they have nice routes?
Please God. With the R188 with ATO/ATC and the legacy option with the R62 and the signal trips. That would be absolutely epic.
The problem is most commuter lines in the US don't want to play ball with DTG with the licensing, so we are limited scope in what can come in game. We pretty much only have..... -Amtrak -Amtrak State Supported Corridors (California/Surfliner, Cascades, Midwest, NDDOT) but some of these share lines with other commuter lines, so their use could be limited. -MBTA -MTA (LIRR, Metro-North etc.) -New Jersey Transit -Caltrain (Nothing to really add) -ACE (interested but their line doesn't fit TSW's scope) Others never gave their branding to TSC or we have no clue if DTG can secure their license.
As much as I’d love (and MANY other people would love) an MTA NYCT route I don’t see it happening. MNR Hudson or New Haven, maybe an LIRR refresh. I’m all in when it comes to NYC, take my money.
Cajon was only about 85 miles and the scenery got rushed in the Pass itself and it shows. Donner from Roseville to Reno is 140 miles, an EXTRA 55 miles, while Roseville to Truckee is about 99 miles.
New Haven line and a new LIRR are the two routes on top that I think will launch with TSW4. On another thread I had MML south and ECML as the two possible. But after the flying Scotsman Smithsfield depot was found it became clear the ECML would be the UK route. But yes,thi is only speculation and no way factual
There aren't many commuter lines in the US. Everyone drives a car. Look at Kansas City for example. Not one train. Maybe a few buses. But I found Kansas City to be beautiful although was told and found out that it has its red light area...
Won't happen unless DTG knows they have the numbers. SEHS in the UK was extended because the Kent High Speed route is extremely popular like Brighton Main Line.
Absolute nonsense. New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, Philadelphia and other major metro areas all have extensive commuter rail. Just another of your wild, unfounded posts.
If the new US route is a passenger route then I expect it'll likely be in the New York area again because although there are a wide variety of commuter rail routes across the US, very few of them will allow their licence to be used in a game/sim unfortunately.
As Crosstie says, there are plenty of commuter railroads in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commuter_rail_in_North_America But, equally, there are vast areas of the country where the nearest passenger rail station is hundreds of miles away.
I'd like to see another NYC route, personally. New Haven line would certainly work for me. Or LIRR 2.0. Or NY Subway. I'd also be interested in another MBTA route in Boston, but i don't much about that area. Until they upgrade the way freight operations work in TSW, especially on the US-side, passenger stuff is going to be more interesting to me. Maybe DTG will be able to break through on licensing with SEPTA/MARC/Metra/etc at some point- ridership is still down in a lot of places, so another revenue stream via licensing might be more appealing now.
American Railroads do exactly the right thing. First priority is freight to secure the supply for the economy. Commuting in and around the big cities and Amtrak for the long range. And on each Class 1 freight route they have Positive Train Control.
Because Commuting is profitable in and around the big cities only. And America don't makes the mistake to support commuters with empty trains in the country side with a lot of money.
Sometimes I wonder what is even the point of these speculations anymore, as we vaguely have no idea what's the next US route is gonna be at this moment. Not to mention seeing many wanting more Northeast and West Coast routes because of (ofc) more passengers, even right after Trenton. While it's been nearly a year since the last freight route, Cajon Pass, was released.
Exactly. From the 13 US routes in TSW we only have 5 routes with mainline freight action. And from this 5 routes SMH, HSC and CJP have realistic train lengths only.
I'm sure there are, but I'd wager there are more that think they are. Which would be why the majority of the suggestions in this thread for US routes are passenger focused, and not freight focused.
