Bought Birmingham Cross City today as it’s currently discounted by 30% on PSN. I have done the route introduction, BR Class 323 tutorial and a Redditch to Lichfield Trent Valley service. In addition, I’ve gotten all of the collectables and done 32.3 miles in the 323 to get all three trophies. I’m quite happy with the route so far, although I do wonder why the route map posters are so tiny and why the freight services are numbered the way they are (seem a little confusing). The collectables are fun as are the cats. Haven’t seen the suicidal donkey on top of the building though yet. Hopefully someone has talked him/her down. I’ve noticed, as with many of the new routes, my avatar gets stuck in areas you would expect to be explorable (like areas where there are lots of track). I don’t remember any of the older routes, like East Coastway, being so restrictive. It made getting to some of the collectables a bit of a chore, but all were obtainable. The most disappointing place on the route is inevitably New Street Station. My avatar sneezed and the echo went on for about thirty minutes - thanks to the mostly empty cavernous space. There is a lot of potential here for the future, but right now, it’s very lacklustre. I also find performance to be pretty decent with few stutters, although up close and personal LOD pop-in is as jarring as on many other routes. This is a strong immersion killer for me. I don’t know if anything will ever be done, or can be done to vastly minimise this, but it seems nothing is being done at the current time. The Class 323 looks and sounds great. Looking forward to spending more time on the route.
Mattty May I'm still humming and harring whether to get this route, or wait until it's in a sale. Though with Microsoft Gamepass that will probably be around Christmas. As it stands, Is it worth £30?
I'd say wait for a sale, the route isn't too bad scenery wise if you download the scenery mod from TSC as the scenery on the Redditch branch is sparse, also New Street is very empty & feels lifeless.
The route has been on sale and that's when I acquired it. Overall it's well- modeled and, much as I'm tired of seeing emu's one after another, I actually found the 323 fun to drive. But it's really the only train and so the route lacks traffic and, as was pointed out, BNS is a mausoleum. The other downside for me is that the night lighting is so poor, that I cannot drive the route in darkness. So it's kind of languishing in the rainy day closet for now
I can’t say it’s worth £30 as of yet. I haven’t driven at night (where the route gets negative feedback from others). Other than that though, nothing has really got on my nerves so far.
Out of interest, what's your opinion of additional services to the timetable such as the Class 66 and HST etc?
Having had a quick glance of the timetables for the HST and Class 66, the HST is very very limited with only a very small portion of the route involved. The Class 66 is also quite limited from what I can tell, though I’m not 100% on that.
Ah right, that sounds a bit of shame - anyway, thanks for clarifying nonetheless. Normally this should be a type of route which should be my favourite, but if the timetable and rolling stock is limited and/or has large, empty stations, then I'm not as interested which is frustrating.
Neither of these use the route north of New Street, so their use is fairly limited, but this is true to life with very little going up the line... Just checked RTT and there's only one non-passenger train or engineering train pathing this WEEK and that's a civils train
Done a timetable service in the dark. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible either. I did set it to custom/clear weather though.
Birmingham New Street in real life is many things but quiet and empty isn't one of them. That for me so far is the main reason for my disappointment in the route.
Not sure what you were expecting with no class 390, 350, 170, 220, 158 etc to populate the route passenger wise and freight using the avoiding lines generally
What I've seen, NS also void of passengers. Which is the total opposite to WSR, where you have to push your way through the crowds!
Personally I think it is one of the best and most immersive routes and I paid £30 for it and have got a lot out of it, but everyone is different. The train is one of the best in the sim and the route is very well modelled, yes there is a bit of poor scenery around Alvechurch but it isn't that immersion breaking for me, and there is a good patch for it anyway. At night Birmingham is too dark as if there has been a powercut and yes New Street is very quiet but you are only in it for a few minutes. Yes there is only one main train but the Cross City has quite an intensive timetable so you are regularly passing other services. It would only be on the stretch between New Street and Barnt Green/Bromsgrove where you would pass other WMT or XC services, which would add to the immersion but you wouldn't exactly be passing one every couple of minutes so for me it isn't a deal breaker. It would be nice to see layers in the future or the route used as a hub for a larger West Midlands network.
Let’s just say, I’m happy I finally have it in my collection. Could it better, absolutely, but it’s not crud.
It is a good line, but is waiting for a correction. ・The town where night lightener is too gloomy is dead. ・A train passing each other does not have destination indication
I'd say is worth it. The 323 is actually my most used train and I like the unique assets and stations. And besides my personal nitpick's and the obvious lack diversity in traffic I think it's one of the best British routes DTG have given us.
The 323 is an outstanding train, really excellently modeled and sounded (although the interior PIS has the same accuracy problems as MML). The route overall is much like Cathcart: if you like CCL, you'll like this, although I would give BCC the edge with a better train (not that the 314 is bad), and night lighting which ain't great but isn't as dire as Glasgow's.
The 314 in all fairness is actually pretty spot on. I seen them many, many times when I worked gateline at Central Station before Covid. My biggest gripe is with the flange sounds really, but that's it. The whole route in general is pretty spot on, minus Central station being unrealistically quiet. Personal bias for my home route aside though, BCC is probably the best UK route out there for TSW. I regret not picking it up much sooner! I just wish New Street wasn't so dead.
Hi Mattty May . Now that a few days have passed, are you still happy with the route? Do you feel it's fair at the current price for what it offers? I'm thinking of taking advantage of the offer and getting it.
If you put the reverser in neutral it should stop that happening. It gets annoying when you decide to go for a walk! Cathcart is one of my favourite routes as it is a complete route, well mini network and I do love the class 314. I would be happy with more routes like this, although some extra traction would be nice.
Small thing but after getting all the planters, they appear empty and if you walk up to any of them it comes up with 25 of 25. Wonder if anyone else is getting this. Cheers
Did they ever fix the broken canal water, missing fencing south of Birmingham and scenery on the Redditch branch?
I would say it's the best route so far for TSW 3.The standard of detail is very good.I travelled part of it last weekend and its more or less spot on.Yes there are pop ins now and again but nothing immersion breaking. The 323 is one of the best trains to drove in the game If they added say Wolverhampton-coventry as a future DLC making New Street busier in the process this route would be even better.
