With a length of 65 miles, the line between Milton Keynes, Northampton and Birmingham is a mix of commuter services from Northampton, Coventry and Birmingham International to Birmingham New Street as well as Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry express services to Wolverhampton, Manchester, Glasgow and Crewe. The line also features a high amount of freight traffic, with the container terminal at Daventry being a hive of activity as well as the usual mix of freight traffic on the WCML. Proposed Rolling Stock Class 350/1 & /3 in London Northwestern Railway livery The 350/1 and 350/3 provide a total of 40 units of the Class 350 class, with them being found on Euston - New Street & Crewe services as well as Northampton to Birmingham services and other AI traffic at Milton Keynes. The units are capable of 110mph, with the 350/4 also being able to layer in for players who own the WCML Trent Valley route when that releases. Class 730/0 & /2 in West Midlands Railway & London Northwestern Railway livery The Class 730s are divided into 2 subclasses, with the 48 3car units being capable of 90mph whilst the 36 5car units can run at up to 110mph, with the 2 fleets contributing to the withdrawal of the Class 350/2s. The LNWR 730s are used on services from London Euston to Crewe & Birmingham New Street, with the 730/0s being used on some local services south of Milton Keynes on the WCML as well as Cross City services and services from Birmingham International to Rugeley Trent Valley and Walsall to Wolverhampton via Aston. Layers Class 90: The Class 90 will appear on select freight services between Milton Keynes and Rugby via Northampton, as well as some services that use the terminal at Daventry. WCMLS Class 66: Appears on all other container & aggregate services on this route (excluding DRS). Class 170: Adds CrossCountry AI services to Cardiff, Nottingham and Leicester at New Street. Class 220: Adds CrossCountry services between Coventry and New Street as well as AI traffic at New Street Class 390: Adds the majority of Avanti services to/from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Wolverhampton and Birmingham. WCMLTV: Class 350/4 will layer onto all 350 services on this route, with the 807 layering onto select Avanti services to/from Liverpool and Birmingham Class 805: Adds services to/from Chester, Holyhead and Wrexham which are mostly AI as well as some Birmingham services. Class 86/2 (86235): Adds railtour AI between Rugby and Milton Keynes, as well as light loco moves to/from Rugby (pretending to be 86259)
Eventually - Yes please. Now or in the near future - Can we have something that's not a section of the WCML and its branches please? Diminishing returns and all that.
I've said elsewhere that I feel like this is AAS' next step and it makes a lot of sense: The Northampton loop, which is only served by trains to Birmingham, is omitted in Trent Valley, Which to me suggests a choice was made to just keep the loop for the next route where services will actually use it. That would mean that all WCML services, regardless of where they're going, would only have to be split (i.e. route-hopped) at Milton Keynes, without any abridged MK - Northampton type-runs. Regardless of whether my tinfoil hat is working or not, I'd quite like to see this. It would complete the English WCML (minus that now-awkward gap towards Manchester) and hopefully AAS can move to create another network of routes just like it.
I secretly hope this goes in the same direction as the Original German route Dresden to Riesa. The coolest thing of all is that it would connect both DLCs from All Aboard Studios!
Other mainlines exist. Out of the six routes shown below we have two small sections. Whereas the WCML has 8 sections and branches, 10 if we include Not Crewe to Manchester and Birmingham Cross-City Why do a select few seem to think we should have every section of one mainline before a others get a look in? A typical driving duty would not go from Euston to Glasgow. So I don't get why having a full mainline, especially the longest one in the UK in TSW keeps being suggested. Is it a lack of imagination or the belief that people actually have time to sit and drive 500 miles in one sitting? Trust me, I've done Edinburgh to Kings Cross in TSC in one 5 hour session and my eyes and backside ached and I had a splitting headache by the time I reached Peterborough. I did it once when it was first possible and never again and now I know why long-distance mainline trains have at least one crew change.
This is just a suggestion, we will never all agree on suggestions anyway. Did Dover Priory - Mallaig once... 21 hours. That was insane, but I don't regret it. Apart from this particular case, I do sessions of several hours at a time about once a month, and yes, I would like it to be possible to travel several hundred kilometers in one go. As TSC's ECML merge. To each their own likings, there need to be something for everyone !
I know, just a bit of a nudge towards developers who may be considering what to build next. It's right that we all advocate for the DLC we'd love to see, keep at it and I wish you the best of luck.
Well, at least the you'd get it out of way. I imagine though that if WCMLS had gone to Birmingham instead of stopping at Milton Keynes, that we wouldn't have got more WCML in such a short time.
yeah this would be cool since this is my local line and also since hopefully it would include DIRFT (a big freight terminal), depending on how big the map can be maybe it would be cool for it to be extended from rugby - nuneaton to allow more route possibilltes and with that there could be the Coventry - Nuneaton line but i think thats too much
