If my calculations are correct, tomorrow should see the announcement ( or at least a teaser ) of the next UK DLC?
Modern route because there is only 2 modern routes and 4 traction. Compare that to the historic routes of which there are 3 routes and 10 traction so the modern routes are lagging behind not to mention that the historic routes are much better quality especially compared to the GWE route which feels extremely outdated and unloved. HST physics are off and the sounds of the Class 165 turbo aren’t right even after all this time. The East Coastway was a nice route and I liked the electrostar but the route just had a branch line/rural network feel to it probably in part due to lack of train traffic and passengers. It would be nice to have one of the bigger routes or mainlines out of a big terminus such as ECML, WCML, SWML, GEML, etc... Just my opinion of course. If they choose wisely, they may able to choose a route with a mixture of old and new traction such as the West Coast Mainline which had Class 87s, for example, running until the early 2000s. So they could set it in the modern day with Class 390s/221s/350s and do a DLC in the near future with the Class 87 which will make both parties happy. Actually a better example would have been the Class 90 that they used until 2014 I think for the pretendolino set. Modern: Class 165 HST Class 66 Class 377 (Great Western Express; East Coastway) Old: Class 47- granted it’s buggy Class 52 Class 31 Class 33 Class 40 Class 45 Class 37 Class 101 Class 08 Class 09 (Northern Transpennine Express; Tees Valley: West Somerset Railway) edited to add Class 31 and Class 08 thanks to Stujoy
Personally, I would like a modern (or semi- modern) route. The South Wales Valley lines (specifically the Rhymney Line) would be perfect for TSW. If this were set in 2005, the traction could include class 150, 142, 143 and class 37 loco- hauled sets!