Well... haven't done one of these for a while. Now you may know S-Bahn Vorarlberg as the first Austrian route in TSW, but it was also technically the first cross-border route, as it starts in Lindau, Germany and then heads into Austria not long after it starts. But believe it or not, I have every reason to believe that this route almost had a second border-crossing into Switzerland and in this thread, I will tell you why. Now this mainly focuses on the branch to Lustenau, which in real-life heads towards St. Margrethen in Switzerland. Now even if that area wasn't represented as part of the route, I was curious to see if anything did line beyond the end at Lustenau, and what did I find well.. Now here below you is as far as you can walking before encountering the invisible walls. But thanks to the power of being able to break past them, we can go and see what lies beyond! Now at this point, we are around were the limit of what you can see trackage-wise on the map, but as you can see, the track is still going... Just up ahead is the border crossing in Switzerland... …and immediately after crossing, we have an interesting situation. The track to the right is the AI runoff which trains seemingly use to spawn in and out of the route. However, where does that track on the left lead too? Some small sidings start to appear... Another line joins on here, which only means one thing... We made to St Margrethen! Yes, this area has ended as one of those hidden away areas, probably as a result of somewhere that was supposed to be part of the route, but was cut during development. Keeping heading towards what would be Rorschach to see if we can find anything else. Nope, track ends here. Let's head back to the branch heading towards what Sargans and do the same there. Again, track ends here. so that's concludes this little exploration. So there we have it, turns out the track for St Margrenthen was all laid out as if it was going to be part of this route, but it's seems like it just didn't make it in the end, for reasons that we will hopefully find out in due course. But to be honest, there a part of this that feels quite petty. Like, the Lustenau branch is used by both S3 & S5 services on the S-Bahn Vorarlberg network. S3 just so happens to terminate at St Margrenthen, one stop down the line, so how come DTG just couldn't find that extra bit of time just include that last little bit into Switzerland? Again, I hope these questions get answered in time. EDIT: As it turns out, the reason it wasn't implemented was because of needing to learn about another countries railway infrastructure, such as OLHE, Signalling, Signage and more. Which the team developing this route just didn't have enough time for, so that was why it's ultimately dropped. But either way, I do feel like this has every chance of being added to the route later down the line. It's just the scenery and buildings need to be added, and also that weird AI Runoff located on the section in-between needs to be removed. But whether this actually happens or not, only time will tell, but like with a lot of hidden areas on various TSW routes, I don't think there's a chance of it happening any time soon.
It would be great if these bits could be built out with the editor, but of course there is the issue of baked routes not being editable. Maybe in the future DTG could make the first parts and then say - over to you - and editors could do the rest from the point that the route boundary lies. This gives the basis for someone to start by replicating this in the editor and then build from there. For anything to be modular it needs to share a common tile right? Perhaps the pieces beyond the route limit could be released unbaked?
Lukas answered this one on Discord a while back when I asked the same question - the answer is that a third country to learn (in terms of OHLE, signalling, signage etc) was simply a bridge too far for the time they had available.
So long as the pre baked final version is backed up somewhere, hopefully that can be worked on and extended.
Since I'm seeing the small discussion about possibly finishing this section in the editor (when it comes out of course), I think it's a good time to mention that this isn't the only route that has a hidden away section. I plan a do a proper thread at some point about this, but for now, here are some links to some other routes that also have hidden away section that I have explored in the past (Haven't done the Flughafen branch of Naverkehr Dresden as I feel like that's already been covered to death. Plus, it's not the most interesting hidden away area in my opinion. Follow the second link down for more). CN Oakville Subdivison (Hamilton Industrial Complex) Dresden Park Railway (Both Nahverkehr Dresden & Tharandter Rampe) Sherman Hill (The entirity of Track 3) Harlem Line (New Haven Line up to New Rochelle) Schnellfahrstrecke Kassel-Würzburg Route (MSB Sections) Birmingham Cross-City Line (Soho Depot, Camp Hill Line & Snow Hill) All this though does make me excited for the release of the full editor, as apparently, that you allow to see the entire route map completely unhidden, so that means we can see if anymore routes happen to have hidden away areas that haven't been discovered until now.
I think there was something about DTG telling a 3rd party (Just Trains??) that was easier to lay extra track that you might eventually use all in the first go rather than trying to add it later. It doesn’t guaranty that they will use it. But there is always a maybe. I think it was also mentioned the editor could add to the baked portion of a route. Just not change it Maybe someone can add some of the remaining detail with the editor.
Worth noting that not only were DTG close to having three countries in one route, there would actually be a fourth if the branch from Feldkirch to Buchs that runs through Liechtenstein was added (18.5km).
What completed you would have gotten vierländerbahn 4 country railway Germany Austria Switzerland Lichtenstein. Remember the overnight train from Kanton St Gallen Buchs Villach which runs through Lichtenstein always has the ÖBB1216 Buchs St Gallen Dobova on the old KkStb Hauptstrecke Laibach Agram on the front. While 182 1016/1116 rear or behind the 1216 it's done that way to climb over the alps on the Arlbergbahn
Couldn't they have just worked with Rivet to help with the signaling of the line to Switzerland? It's only 3km from Lustenau and just one additional station
might have something to do with criticism of how safety systems on Swiss routes have been done. Still both options would be that they require more work on them.
Good point and you are referring to Bahnstrecke Basel Olten Sursee Luzern route which has Broken ETCS level 1LS Zub and Integra Signum. On this route that happens on the Border with Switzerland and Austria
Again, I plan to do a much larger thread on this at a later date, but for now, have this little tease from what I was able to explore from using the map in the PC Editor: Also worth mentioning that the track leading away from Feldkirch towards Buchs is actually a bit more extensive, compared to what is shown on the in-game map (The blue track marking is the AI-runoff/spawn point that wouldn't usually be shown anyways).
I am not replaying it my point is that the train Protection Systems have to be improved from that last route
Rivet also have their own content. They have a swiss route, uk route and 2 gameplay packs releasing close to each other if you look on the roadmap
