I must say as a new member I am loving the TSW forums. I think it is safe to say that now a TSW 2 route has been made which uses the TVM 430 signaling system, that a Eurostar route is definitely now on the cards for consideration and if people view this post and really like the idea of a Eurostar addon then please further promote this idea in Matt and the teams direction. My suggestion would be that the addon would go from London St Pancras (non-negotiable starting point) to Lille, now on paper this is quite a long route coming in at 152 miles or 245 Kilometres, the stops would cover Stratford International, Ebbsfleet International, Ashford International, Channel Tunnel section between Folkestone and Calais, Calais Frethun and finally Lille Europe. My Argument to this obstacle of it being made is that most of the way it is going to be plain cruising at between 300 KPH and 320 KPH and lets be frank in England the norm is to only stop at Ebbsfleet before carrying on non stop to Lille with the additional two or three a day in either direction that stop at Ashford and/or Calais! So in all fairness it would not take very long to complete; depending on stops the average direct journey time from London to Lille is 1hr 15 mins with the longest being 1hr 32 ish mins. Most TSW fans would happily do that distance in that sort of journey time! Now I did say that St Pancras as a starting point was non-negotiable BUT there is the Southeastern High Speed addon in the pipeline. What if, it was possible to release that addon and then release the Eurostar part as an later extension/addition for the Southeastern High Speed addon from Ashford International to Lille, this would dramatically reduce the distance from 245 Kilometres down to 164 Kilometres or 102 miles. You would then be in a situation where you would have as well as the Class 395 and 375, the E300 and/or E320. This would be a TSW fans paradise! So I now turn to Matt and the team to put the whole idea of a Eurostar route addon into consideration because it is very much achievable and we TSW folk would like to see it.
I definitely like the idea, but the Eurostar has a great problem - a 30-minute tunnel. Yes, it's an iconic ride, but driving through a massive tunnel can be boring. The TGV route features an 11km tunnel and even there sometimes I feel that tunnel is a little too boring...
I definitely agree with you that tunnels are quite boring for some but I reckon sufficient people would ride it out because you could just go and pop on the kettle make a cup of tea and set the speedometer to the speed limit of the channel tunnel, so I don't think it is great problem as there are ways of getting around that factor but yes nonetheless I see your point.
It sounds like a good route that I would immediately purchase when released but yes it depends if the licence is available
After the UK leaves the EU, will Eurostar go to the UK? DTG is a British game studio, so it will not be licensed. This is guess
They don't have it yet but I think with much persuasion and time they definitely could obtain the license rights and because now the simulation itself is much more realistic to an actual rail operators simulator I think Eurostar could eventually concede and give the green light to DTG. But Matt and his team must be prepared to fight head over heal to get to that point.
Eurostar is a British Operator which works closely with SNCF and SNCB but are not merged together. Recently however, Thalys and Eurostar merged but this will still not make it any more difficult to obtain a license from the organisation.
Indeed, and as I said in a previous reply I very much think with much persuasion and time the license could be obtained by DTG but it will take those two factors to get there.
Eurostar is an iconic brand and definitely deserves representation in TSW2, whether that’ll ever happen remains to be seen, but it would be on my ‘to buy list’.
It is probably the most iconic British brand after British Airways and I agree with you it definitely deserves to be represented on such a realistic top quality simulation like TSW 2. I believe as I have said in previous comments that it is very much possible and achievable with time and persuasion BUT on behalf of the TSW 2 fanbase Matt and his team have got to be willing and prepared to fight for that.
Or just the eurotunnel trains might be an option , but simulating vehicles in such depth might be an issue
I tell you what I do not get is that DTG have got the licenses of SNCF and Deutsche Bahn who are way, way larger than Eurostar. But all we can do is continue to promote this idea. I mean lets not forget that it has taken DTG donkeys years to get the license from TFL for the London Underground.
I support the idea and it would be nice to finally get a high speed route where we can use the high speed train for more than a hour instead of 35 minutes.
I would love to see Eurostar because it would possibly be the first Cross Boarder Routes on TSW2. It would be a great addition and it is also quite an important route for the UK considering it’s uses.
Eurostar have been down right hostile to the TS community in the past (including hitting sites hosting freeware Eurostar models with lawyers). I think DTG will probably pick the battles they can win.
I see your point on that however, DTG could win this battle if they go about things the right way and additionally, you must bare in mind that was TS Classic which in comparison to TSW 2 is like two separate worlds in terms of realism to a genuine train operators simulator, it is also additionally very different in terms of what you can do as the driver.
Indeed, it is a very important route and I think that now in terms of where DTG have come with their evolution of Train Sims such as now with TSW 2 and how much more realistic it is, that Eurostar might become slightly more mellow and less hostile to the idea of giving the license for DTG to create a route and of course the train stock.
That will never happen and... I personally don't think Eurostar would be so good route to be honest. If it did happen, I wouldn't pass on it personally but... I do not think we need another Eurostar thread as we have hundreds of requests people wanting going through dark long tunnels.
That would be awesome, there is no reason why they couldn't do it all the way to either Paris or Brussels. I just proposed it to Lille to make it more of a realistic proposition for Matt and the team if one of them read it.
Well that is your opinion which you are entitled to have and keep. But you are a minority as most of the fanbase want a Eurostar route and quoting your words 'we have hundreds of threads of requests people wanting to go through dark tunnels, well I am sorry sir but that's not what we are requesting for and furthermore this so far has been the only thread for a Eurostar route which has actually developed into a proper conversation. I'll additionally add that most of the Eurostar network is not spent in tunnels it's actually spent in either beautiful Kent, French, Belgium or Dutch countryside I would know as I've travelled with the operator on multiple occasions.
No. It will never happen as Eurostar will not give out licenses. And I still don't see any point for it at all. Basically we do not need it either (thou it would be nice). To be honest, I don't think most fans want it. Most fans want Dutch, West Coast Mainline and NEC and Eurostar was pretty far down the list if I remember correctly with Brighton Mainline being requested by more people proving that Eurostar wouldn't sell. If you add Eurostar to a route then it would be a different story thou.
But as said, it will never happen and for same reason we will never get a Thalys either as they are the same company now.
Well if you look at the forums you'll see that many people actually do want a Eurostar addon, people have been saying this same kind of negative stuff about other routes before over the past years which have now come to pass and are selling.
And we also know that DTG actually haven't had proper behind closed doors discussions yet with Eurostar and/or Thalys.
It is kind of difficult to have a conversation with a company when they say no thank you. In my opinion, it will change soon as they have SNFC license now and SNCF has a huge stake in Eurostar along with a company that actually has a track so we might have both (Eurostar branding and Thalys branding) in the game soon. Especially as in theory, getting a license to use a brand should be easier actually. So they do move towards the direction (in speculative world) to get it easier to get a license for a brand.
That is very true! Now they have the SNCF licensing many new amazing routes should and hopefully will come out of it whether that includes Eurostar we'll have to wait and see on that one.
Plus it is hard to have discussions with a company that is changing it's legal form as Eurostar brand is about to get a new legal name as well and if I remember correctly, it takes time to get a takeover done. In other words, they can't even discuss a license when the company itself is not stable yet and is in a transformation phase.
First they have to finish the old company (dissolve) and transfer everything to a new legal owner of the brand Eurostar plus many many more hurdles so I think that talking with DTG is not on a pipeline very soon for Eurostar.
Yeah you are right there, I just hope that in these unprecedented times what with Covid that the company becomes stable sooner rather than later.
If a company is not up for negotiating then not much can be done. Better to spend the time on an operator that more willing to be included
Every company is up for negotiating, it's whether DTG can get to an arrangement. The EU were not massively up for negotiating for a very long time BUT eventually an arrangement came together.
I still support the idea and if this route were to be made and if people don't like it, they are not entitled to buy it.