Boston-Providence is a route that I deeply love and I want it to be the best that it can be. I will definitely give DTG the benefit of a doubt that they did a great job fixing the signaling issues on the route and adding the new lighting. However, there are some things that I feel like DTG should have addressed while looking to improve this route. So let’s get started. Scenery Where do I even start? I was pretty disappointed that this route got no scenery improvements at all. Boston-Providence still has some of the lowest quality scenery in all of TSW. There is still tons of floating scenery that can be seen from the tracks. Some parts also just look very poor. Im sorry but just look at this. It looks terrible. This is located right next to Mansfield. Then there’s Route 128 which also looks bad. As you can see, the concourse is not connecting with the stairs to the platforms. This is what it looks like irl Last but not least… where the heck is Pawtucket Station? It’s completely missing from the route. How DTG could leave out such a noticeable landmark along the route is not good. Here’s what the station looks like irl… There are also some other issues such as the messy catenary at Boston South Station. This is something that also needs to be addressed. The new catenary is great, but it does not look good in Boston. (Image will be posted in a reply) Then there is the track model that is completely inaccurate. Luckily this was corrected in NEC New York-Trenton, but it was not fixed in Boston-Providence. Currently, the tracks use wooden ties with ballast overlapping the center and dark brown ballast. This is completely inaccurate to real life. Irl, the tracks use a mix of grey and light brown ballast with white concrete ties just like NY-Trenton. Idk how much work this would require but if it was manageable to do, this would make the route a lot more realistic. (Images shown in a reply) For TSW standards, the scenery is just really poor. Work badly needs to be done on this route. Even if they at least fixed the major scenery issues such as floating scenery, and places that look completely inaccurate, it would improve the route substantially. Timetable For the most part, the timetable is pretty solid. However, I do have criticisms about it. First and foremost, computer generated timetables. All timings are to the second on this route and it can be annoying to look at. There are also times when it does not put consideration toward delays from traffic. Some services are nearly impossible to get golds on because of the poor timings for station. Secondly, priorities for trains also feels odd. For example, let’s say I’m driving a northeast regional or Acela toward Boston. I feel like it is super common to get cut off by a stoughton line train which most likely would not happen in real life. More likely they wild give Amtrak priority at Canton Junction over Stoughton Line trains. However, if you’re in some stoughton line trains, you may have to wait for an MBTA limited stop train that hasn’t even made it to Sharon, making you have to wait around 10 minutes for it to pass. The priorities feel very out of place and need to be addressed. Lastly, there are a few suggestions I have in terms of adding additional services to the route. The first thing I would like to see are Amtrak deadheads bound for Boston. These do occur from time to time in this part of the route, so if we even had a single deadhead service bound for Southampton Street Yard or Boston would be really cool. I would also love to see a single double headed northeast regional service. It think it would add a bit more variety to the route. Now for MBTA, I think they should also have a couple deadhead services to and from Boston just to give us some additional variety. These also happen from time to time. It would also be cool to have a double headed MBTA service for even more variety. Lastly, I think there should be some services that go from Providence to and from Pawtucket Layover Yard since trains do get stored there when ending in Providence at night. It would also make the yard feel a bit more lively. It was used in the foundations scenario, so I think it should also be done for timetable mode as well. Would I say that this route should get an overhaul for improved times? Possibly. However I feel like this would be a bit too much work. Maybe they are able to modify the current timings in the current timetable so that it doesn’t need to be overhauled. But if they were able to do this, it would make the timetable much better. Lighting The lighting looks great on the route. However, there are some issues with lighting mostly around the Boston area. At Boston South station, there are some pieces of track that have exterior lighting when indoors. It looks really weird and should get looked at. (Seen in reply) Secondly, there are some tunnels between Ruggles and Forest Hills where when you enter them, a blue tint briefly appears in the cab. It isn’t a huge deal but should also be looked at as it can be pretty noticeable. Performance I feel like the performance on this route worsened since the update. I’m getting a lot more frame drops on my Xbox series S. I haven’t dug too much into what is causing these frame drops, but it could have something to do with TOD4, the static freight stock, or the Acela. This route did have some performance issues in the beginning as well but I feel like it has gotten worse, so hopefully DTG is able to look into this more. Grade Crossings Lastly I want to talk about grade crossings on the Stoughton Branch. There is a bug where if you bring your train to a stop (such as at Canton Center where there is a crossing right next to the station) eventually the gates will go up. Now in real life this is actually accurate. However, once a train gets moving again and sounds the horn, the gates need to go back down. The game does not simulate this. This is a core issue with the American crossings as this does happen on other American routes like Peninsula Corridor. A simple fix for this could be to add additional triggers around canton center to activate the crossing or could be triggered by the horn. I think Boston-Providence is a great route. I want it to be as good as it can possibly be. And to do that, I have to give Dovetail some tough love. I want This route and other US routes to be held to the same standards as the German and UK routes, but I feel like we’re not there yet. I really hope some of these improvements can be implemented in the near future
Here is an image of the messy catenary at Boston South Here are some images of the incorrect track model and what it should look like. Here are some examples of the lighting issues in Boston South
I'm just going to post this here as well then. If course, most of these issues have been well-documented from the original release of the route. But, even if dated, the concerns are still valid. After the Acela and TOD4, however, I do not expect DTG to touch this route again. If they ever did, well, they would certainly have plenty to look at. Much the same with many other routes, I'm afraid.
It is not hard to see why it should be omitted, e.g. due to restrictions. It is not good practice to omit the bad parts. Floating landscapes are out of the question.
I must say that I don't think the scenery is all that bad. Looking at the picture of the real example it strikes me that it doesn't look that far off. Sure details like you describe could be better but as someone that does not know this route in real life at all I'm actually more impressed after seeing this example. There are even no passengers in real life on the platforms. What's next? A picture of a real life station with real life passengers wearing caps that don't match their outfits?
The route has been upgraded to TSW3 standard therefore it will run much worse than the TSW2 version. Get used to it. I doubt it will ever be fixed.
I noticed that on Providence station now, if you take the free cam and go around the outside of the building, theres all kinds of pitch black darkness. I'd say its not a huge deal because this is actually parts of the station where you never actually see it in game from the train (the front of the station where the clocktower is and the vehicle drop off point). It was cool that DTG actually modelled that area in the first place but I guess it didn't get a second treatment once the lighting was changed.
I have only had one run on it since the upgrade, with the new Acela last night. I enjoyed it but I was following a stopping service along the whole of the run so I was constantly having to keep the speed down to 30, 45 or 80 mph, I had a few minutes when I could get up to 120mph. It was a good challenger and good practice with the signalling but I did wonder if it was true to life. I can't say I have noticed any problems with the scenery but I have rarely strayed from the cab so far. From the cab with the new lighting I thought the route looked really good. I do think the lighting in the tunnels doesn't feel right at all sometimes. I have to say apart from a couple of minor stutters approaching Boston the route seems to run smoothly, both pre and post update. I don't have a particularly powerful computer either.
