Hello there DTG, I am here to suggest you do something in Portugal. (Highly unlikely but worth a shot). The Route So this would be the Portuguese Northern Main Line which has a total of about 300km so I suggest making a small portion of it in the northern City of Porto. The Route would then run all the way to Coimbra B. This is a historically very important city and it's about 100km from Porto. Trains and Services It would run a variety of high speed Pendolino known in Portugal as "Alfa Pendular". This only has one stop along the way at Ovar and travels at a top speed of 220Km/h. The train has tilting technology which helps it achieve its top speed in the winding Portuguese tracks. There are also Intercity Trains which have more stops along the way and only have a top speed of 200km. And finally there can be suburban Trains coming from Porto which end at Espinho, Ovar and Aveiro getting lower and lower frequencies the longer it goes. There are also some Regional trains but their rare now a days so I honestly wouldn't worry to much about those... Scenery In terms of scenery we are talking about the one of the world's most wonderful as you start off traversing the Douro river in the New S. João which has the best view to the old rail bridge: Ponte Maria Pia. This one was closed because of its age since it was build by Gustaf Eiffel himself. You then rush along the marvelous Espinho beaches as you travel south into the deep forests of Portugal. Portugal also has a massive about of old stations which are now preserved. (For the trains you have to manually click on the IMG button and go to the site, sry)
I know it's so sad. It's there anyways if someday DTG wants to make a route that is NOT in either UK ger or us
