Pure speculation, but the most likely Grand Central routes I can think of are Bradford - Doncaster (althoughlack of Northern makes this seem unlikely) Kings Cross - Stevenage (as part of a Thameslink/Great Northern route)
If "Aiken" is indeed referring to the South Carolina short line, then that sounds like a really interesting addition. Short line railroads can have some really fun switching gameplay, very unique compared to other routes. Although it would be a really weird choice, as Aiken is not at all a big name for sales. CSX, Union Pacific, or Norfolk Southern are all probably better choices for single track lines. Although I'll take any branch line that involves interesting operations, and these green GP30s look quite nice. I like it.
If Aiken is included, then I imagine a 3rd party developer doing it as it is such a short route. Because DTG have the Great Northern and Grand Central; Thameslink licences, I can assume that we will have ECML [south]. All we need to do is get LNER on board, which should be easy as they are owned by the OLR
Good Point if you're wondering Avanti West Coast it's actually part of the Italian State railways FS. Therefore you can assume that DTG has the Italian FS Railway license due to them owning Avanti West Coast.
Cross country is the most interesting one. They're pretty much everywhere in the UK so it's anyone's guess. I guess they'd probably be a side service on a route like the ECML. The only route exclusively run by XC that might fit that I can think of is Birmingham to Derby.
Well I don't happen to see FS on the list everyone's talking about, do you? Also I don't think that formulabee was even talking about the WCML, never mind Avanti... Also, Avanti is a joint venture between First Group & Trenitalia. So you can't really "assume" considering there is no evidence to it.
Another thing to keep in mind is that DTG included a BNSF loco with Tehapachi Pass, which is the first time they've done so in years. All they needed to do was remove the BNSF logos internationally, that's how third parties did it all these years after all. There was never a reason that DTG couldn't do the same, they just seem to vastly prefer to do branded content when possible.
I knew that FS had a share in Avanti, but it's not a subsidiary of FS. Just checked on wikipedia, Avanti is owned 70% by First Group and 30% by Trenitalia I'd guess the just have the Avanti License, they don't have to get the Trenitalia and First as well (I think).
I doubt they do, First & Trenitalia are only referenced in this line of text: However the logos of either don't appear anywhere, so I'd imagine they just need the Avanti license. In other words, this is another case of people acting smart and being totally wrong.
Of course as soon as those unbranded routes appeared, some enterprising people made branding mods available to the TS community. Not of course encouraged or sanctioned by DTG.
Its highly unlikely that DTG would go through the horror of getting a Thameslink License unless they were making something Thameslink (Most Likely, a 700 for BML)
I have spent several years now discussing licensing agreements with moderators and game devs on various forums and if there is one I have learned from that it is that you cannot make any assumptions about licensing. The only licensing you can be assured of are the ones directly in the playable game. If anything can be assumed from this list it is that we cannot take anything on it for granted until we have official confirmation from DTG. What it does offer, however, is a reasonable idea of where DTG's intentions lie. It suggests a list of things they (or a third party developer) have aimed or are aiming to develop for TSW2. Either way licensing is a finicky beast and there is every possibility that nothing new to TSW2 on that list will see the light of day. It's certainly exciting, but as I said, you cannot take it for granted.
these license logos really don't mean anything at this point until some of these things appear on the roadmap it's not happening
I'd say to not get over excited for nothing, while it might be possible that they got those licenses because they are developing routes, it's also possible those are just some leftover licenses from TS which represent a possibility for choosing possible future routes, stuff like BNSF and GC. There are higher chances that operators that are not featured in TS and are highly requested in TSW might be a hint to future DLCs, for example Thameslink and Arriva but I wouldn't count on that, and if they are actually working on them I wouldn't expect any DTG DLC to come before late 2021 given how much time Rush Hour is going to take to finish. The most optimistic scenario I can come up with is a sort of SEHS/Class 465 release between London-Brighton and a Thameslink 700.
There's no way all of this is real, especially the BNSF part. From what I hear, it sounds they take their licensing pretty serious so I doubt they'd still be able to use BNSF assets.
It was found within the game files of the EGS version, and BNSF just aren't able to be licensed outwith the US, as they aren't trademarked outside it or something.
I wouldn't jump to conclusions based on this shot. Just because they've prepared some company logos doesn't mean they have a license. Perhaps stuff is used to do demos while negotiating licensing. The list involves quite a few operators that are present in Train Simulator, which is likely that DTG would also get a license for in TSW2, but I'm quite surprised to see BNSF, which has always been an US-exclusive license for Train Simulator. It may give a rough idea of what DTG would intent to make in the future. But not much more than that.
I only made the comparison with TS to judge the likelyhood DTG can get a license for TSW. If they've been cooperating with a train operator and succesfully obtained a license for several years in TS, I'd say it's very likely they'll also be able to get a license for TSW. That's pretty much were the comparison ends. So I'm not surprised to see companies like Canadian National, First Great Western, Freightliner, NJ Transit, ÖBB and Thameslink in the list, considering these brands have been pretty common in Train Simulator and DLC with those brands have been available for years. It's quite possible DTG already has a license for those companies, but didn't get to developing a route for it yet. However, BNSF is also on that list, and BNSF has always been a problem with licensing for Train Simulator. Although BNSF-content is sold within the US, and unbranded versions outside the US, I didn't think DTG would take the same approach for TSW. There's no such thing as "TS license". They're trying to obtain licenses from real train operators, and considering both TS and TSW are railway simulators, DTG needs to sign off a deal with the very same companies. We know sometimes DTG is succesful in signing a license deal, and sometimes they aren't. It's not much different from racing games, where Nissan is a pretty common brand to see in any car-related game because they're very willing to sign licensing deals, whereas I can't remember ever seeing the Porsche brand. It's all different games, but they need the same licenses and are contacting the same companies to get those.
Regarding that license list, I will just make this point again: The 'licensorlogos' files are the logos that appear in the new menus coming with the core update - for example, Bakerloo Line now has the Underground Roundel instead of a flag. So, in theory, if they made say, WCML, the Avanti file here, would be there. Hence why they first appeared on the Epic version, as that was the first version with this new menu and file group.
The Porsche thing is actually a good example of how complicated this stuff can be. Porsche had an exclusive licensing deal with EA which prohibited Porsche licesing anyone else to use their brand or models in a game. It looks like that deal has ended though.