I love the new Tharandter Rampe route, but I have once again run into the issue of an impossibly shortened timetable. For my introduction, I did a RB30 service from Chemnitz to Dresden, stopping at all stations. Start time was 10:28 and the departure time from Chemnitz was 10:30 (real-life counterpart RB 74053, the train departs 10:30), this is perfect and aligns well with the real timetable and first two stops at Chemnitz-Hilbersdorf and Niederwiesa were fine. But then I started to fall behind, eventually racking up 4-minute delay. So I compared the arrival time to Dresden Hauptbahnhof and lo and behold! The real arrival time is 11:52:00. TSW time is 11:40:42 That's eleven minutes shorter. I understand using computing the timetables to save time, but this is ridiculous and unfortunately, there are many routes with similar timetables. Can this be looked into? I was under the impression TSW2 is a train simulator, not a racing game. Other than this, the new route is definitely worth it and I will be spending more time (being late) with it.
This is by far my biggest gripe with the route. Seems like another SEHS, where the timetable is with a +1/3 minutes attached to it. I barely managed to keep up with the Talent I can't imagine being able to do so with the BR143 without clockwork door closings, departures at full throttle and arrivals at Full Service. I appreciate the short dwell times so I can depart when I see fit rather than waiting 1m near an empty platform though.
Disappointing to hear this. Brighton Mainline timetable was so good- I guess i was assuming the same process would be used on Tharandter Rampe.
I had really hoped DTG had cured themselves of this bad practice, but apparently not. MEMO TO DTG: Stop using AI autorunning to set the timetable! Copy the real one!
I'm not too fussed on it, I was running late and it wanted me to shut the doors while people were still getting off (in fact they were still getting off when the doors were shut).
Hopefully the timetable can be tweaked to make things more realistic. Anyhow about to attempt Take two at the second journey mode (612 tutorial). More later.
Oh you’re kidding, they really brought back the AI generated timetables?! That’s really unfortunate. At least other poorly made timetables before Rush Hour had the decency to not list the arrival times by the second. Ever since Boston Sprinter, we’ve had 6 AI generated timetables. That really frustrates me.
Yup, it's back... I'm at the point of giving up, pulling the real time table up on my phone and just sticking to those times. And ignore the medals and Antimatter-drive Points or whatever AP stands for these days
Timetables often seem to be the most simplified things in game... There is hourly repetition which misses out several unique services and stopping patterns/paths. When a timetable is bad, it really discourages me from actually driving the route. When care is taken with timetables, the results are incredible - look at the BML timetable, while there are several inaccuracies in the services, I have yet to find one that I couldn't complete on time.
Well, according to Joe, it seems like the real timetable was being followed and the problem is that the real timetable is too tight (if I understood him correctly):
It's important to remember, however, with that timetable there are huge gaps where Thameslink trains should be running, so there's quite a bit of lax, particularly on the GatEx services.
While that's true, those usually are covered by delayed departures/lengthy loading times in stations, not extra time between stations.
One of the biggest issues that contributes to delay, is that you only get the close door prompt at the departure time. This means, depending on the traction it could be up to 30 seconds before the close sequence is complete and the train is ready to actually depart. I try and get in the habit of closing the doors when the passenger countdown is around the 5 o'clock mark, but sometimes you get caught out and don't catch the actual prompt. As an aside, why are there still no departure whistles from the platform staff or "right away" buzzer where fitted? This is where it remains a bit of a nonsense having the driver operate the doors, especially on slam door stock. These would either be closed by passengers themselves, station staff or at unstaffed stations the Guard walking down the train. (Not to mention we still have the situation where doors open on the section of train not at the platform).
I thought Joethefish curated the timetables for this route based on the real life timetables? Computer generated timetables do not work as they’re usually based on AI driving.
The game does let you start closing the doors a little early, depending on which train it is you get more leaway on how early the game lets you start the sequence
Thanks for the warning. I really hate having to drive like a madman, and still be barely on time (cough S-Bahn cough). Too bad, I was looking forward to getting this route but I think I'll wait and see if they'll fix this first.
To be fair I might have chosen some bad services, and while I tried to kept it into account, being new to the route doesn't help at staying on time. I have since done an RE3 service with the 612 and it was pretty easy to stay on time - I guess the timetable was based on the non tilting trainsets and speed limits. It was a bit harder on the IRE service but possible. I've also done a small S3 service both from the Cab Car and BR143 direction and they seem relatively fine, one strange thing I noticed with a service bound for Tharandt is that I was pretty late at the start, about 30 to 90 seconds but I arrived at one of the Freital Hainsberg (I'll check where exactly) ahead of schedule and consequently arrived more or less on time at Tharandt. If those are the real timings then I guess it's expected that those S-bahn trains are driven pretty harsly, which makes sense it's an urban service, but it's still a bit strange to me. Those seems more like timings a BR442 would be expected to meet rather than a 143, but who am I to judge DB lol, anyway until 3 minutes it's not a delay. I guess in this route driving hard is kind of expected.
To the point I have memorized how many seconds each train takes to close doors (on an Electrostar, six) so that I can start the closing cycle that long before scheduled departure
My opinion of German efficiency just went down a little. I figured DB fined drivers for every second over 30.....
Oh, I’m sure drivers get the short end of the stick for any delay, but only past 5 minutes is it publicly acknowledged as a delay to keep people from complaining and statistics clean of delays (as much as possible).
I used to do this since i started with tsw. On the bakerloo line with 25 stations its about 5 seconds, which means a loss of 2 - 3 minutes by closing the door when it tells you.
Once I've started learning the route and better at judging stopping distances especially on the more steep uphill sections, I've found the runs I've done as achievable, challenging but achievable. On a difficulty level this route timetale is definitely a 9 or 10 timetable, whereas LC is a 5 northbound or a 2 southbound.
I just drove the RB30 as well, besides I was also behind schedule after only a few stops I noticed that the arrival times are sometimes not shown. When you press "T" the departure times are shown, but not the arrival times. Also I think the RB30 service is really too tight.
For timetables to be correct you need the track layout to be exact as well as exact weight traction etc.. Too many variables to list. You’re asking a lot from software that is not expensive.
