After a long period of consideration I have installed a few English DLCs again and I just noticed because the DB BR406 is in the station ST Pancras international. could someone explain to me if this is normal, because I have never seen it on the track before.
DB did at one point get an ICE to London St Pancras for advertising purposes - at the time they were seriously working towards offering direct services to London. Nothing ever came of it because cordoning off platforms of already-overcrowded stations like Köln and Frankfurt just for the border controls on a handful of trains each day to London would be completely insane. Either way, since there's no Eurostar in TSW, there's space in the timetable on SEHS for an ICE that sometimes shows up as a nod towards that promotional run.
Back in 2010 the DB sent an ICE3 set, numbered 4685 for a demonstration to a possible route between Germany and the UK.
One time a couple years ago I believe they were trialing ICE services to London but it never went anywhere
So as a context it is to be taken roughly that this is a small Easter egg, if I understand that correctly. But okay, thank you for the clarification. I really wondered why it was an ice.
You are correct. JoeTheFish is known for putting easter eggs such as this in his timetables. If you have LGV, you can even drive the TGV Duplex in timetable mode! The reason the ICE is AI only is because it doesn't have the TVM430 signalling system installed.
This train really was at this station in 2012. It was planned to run ICE between Frankfurt and London. Unfortunately, the project fell through in 2018 due to Brexit and cheaper bus and flight connections.
Felix you here in the forum that you almost never see / and also thank you for the quick information. It's really nice to see how much attention DTG have for details
I was gutted, I had really wanted this service to become a reality as I often travel to Germany by train and this would have saved me changing at both Brussels and Cologne.
It is hilarious that people only notice when it's october/november (which are the 2 months the ICE 3M appears in the route timetable) as the game sets the day and month to whatever it is irl. I may also hint at it being an active AI, arriving at St. Pancras at 04:49 and leaving it at 22:38. There are more times and a bit more info in a thread I made like last year on this topic.
Not only that, but where would you want to stop it to end the service? It goes straight for the (not in-game available) Eurotunnel and despawns off-map, making it even more special to see if you happen to pick services/spawn times close to its in-game operation times.
Hey myron. Well yes I use uk stretches so rarely that I only noticed this thanks to chance and yes thank you for the hint I will read it all right away. As mentioned, I just love such details
The ICE passes you when driving Part 2 of the Charity of Javelin, as long as you set the date to October or November.
Actually, they still got it in mind, but there's still a problem with missing ETCS on some tracks in Belgium and France... https://www.t-online.de/region/fran...-london-bald-schon-ice-direktverbindung-.html
The original holdup was the Channel Tunnel Authority, whose safety regulations back then didn't permit trains of less than 400m length. By the time that was sorted out, DB was dealing with the chronic unavailability of the breakdown-prone ICE3-MFs, the only ones with TVM 430 that could run on French rails and on to St Pancras. And while that was creating FUD, then came the issue referenced above, the problem of putting customs-isolated platforms in two of DB's busiest stations. (Note that even before Brexit, the UK was not in the Schengen zone and so customs were still a thing). Of course, the pipe dream is not quite dead, especially with the BR 407s on line. The issue is more one of red tape and practicality; it isn't really affected by Brexit. After all, DB happily runs ICE services to non-EU Switzerland.
Could they not just do Schengen border control at St Pancras? That station is already designed with border control in mind...
Switzerland is in Schengen though, so border controls aren't an issue. Even if the UK would be happy with that happenig at St Pancras (which I believe they aren't, cause then anyone they turn away is already in London and they have to send them back), they also require a luggage check before the tunnel. On the other hand they're not searching people's cars if they go on "Le Shuttle" - I guess they think terrorists don't have driver's licenses? - but a nonsensical requirement is still a requirement, sadly.
There are direct Eurostars starting from unsegregated stations (the Dutch ones were such until recently, and I believe they're reintroducing the ski trains and summer service to Marseille). The 'trick' is that you have to get off at Brussels or Lille and go through customs formalities there, which takes a while (the outward journey from London isn't a problem). If coming back from France, it's usually much quicker and easier to catch a TGV to Lille and then a Eurostar from there.
Sorry for the late reply. The message was lost.... And also thanks for the info. I didn't know this station was for border controls.
