My Thoughts On Wcml Euston To Milton Keynes Central

I have fond childhood memories in the 1970s about the WCML when the Euston to Crewe run of 161 miles was scheduled at 1hr 52minutes (an amazing 86.25mph average speed) and the new fully electrified Euston to Glasgow 401 mile journey time was brought down to 5 hours!

WCML is an amazing and interesting route but I fear it may again be a repeat of Brighton Main Line (BML) which was widely accepted as DTG "biting off more than it could chew"

ECML had complaints about not including a terminus (Kings Cross?) and I feel the WCML including Euston is a reply to that but as with BML, too much route complexity could lead to dreadful performance hits. The built up section of BML between Victoria and Croydon was unplayable on launch on TSW2 because of awful stutters and frame drops, especially on PS4 but still bad on PS5. Saying that, having only recently bought TSW4 on a PS5 it seems BML has hugely improved between the TSW2 and TSW4 versions so hopefully the lessons learnt will be brought into play constructing EUS-MKC.

To be honest I feel the performance drops in ECML at built up areas either end (Doncaster and Peterborough) are a bit annoying so I expect around Euston in WCML to be very choppy. Hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised when proved wrong!

I will be getting the free starter pack for TSW5 and experiment with some of the routes I already own whilst keeping track of how WCML is received especially in regards to performance issues. I hope WCML has shaken off the bad memories of BML/TSW2 and the inclusion of a complex terminus in a highly built up area is done better this time round. If I am convinced that it runs well I will buy the route (plus the 390) as stand alone DLC so fingers crossed again. I will also closely watch out for the amazing Just Trains release of Preston to Carlisle northern section of the WCML too!

 

Didn’t they (DTG) say that they were in a ‘partnership’ with TfL shortly before the Goblin/Suffragette route came out? Either it was DTG or TfL or something.. but ‘partnership’ was definitely implied!

 

Personally, MK is more than far enough, especially considering we’re able to drive Tube, Overground, Southern, LNWR, Avanti.. and all the possible freight layers, railtours and future content.

It really isn’t about length this time. We’re getting a highly requested route, at its busiest and possibly most complex section, with 90% of its current timetabled services and stock. When has that happened, in this game, before?

Having said that, the first thing I plan to do is walk the route from MK!

 

There are two reasons why pushing on to Rugby would have been nice. First off that iconic stretch where the railway, Grand Union Canal and M1 Motorway all run side by side for a few miles. Culminating at the Blue Boar service area where the northbound car park provided a great spot to watch passing trains. Banbury Lane level crossing north of Blisworth was another great location back in my mid youth days living in Northampton.

The other would have been traversing the mighty Kilsby Tunnel. As it seems unlikely we will ever get the Great Central and the mighty Catesby Tunnel in TSW, Kilsby is a worthy substitute.

 

Yes. Although I agree it would lovely to have those where do you stop? It’s like saying Crewe station is wonderful so it should continue to there etc etc.

Perhaps with this route hopping thing that’s being introduced in the future Milton to Northampton and Rugby up to Birmingham will be created and you can route hop into it.

But Euston to Milton is easily enough for now. If it was Euston to Watford I’d understand any complaints.

now we have to wait and see if the route is as good and realistic as promised. Or is is a Rivet style fudge?

 

Oh I agree, as a route builder myself in other sims, you have to stop somewhere. But route hopping frankly IMHO is a bit of a gimmick and an excuse for not conjoining two adjacent routes. It’s essentially a shortcut from wandering back out to the main menu, you’re not taking over the same train, with the same delays and reaction around you going forward.

 

Agreed, I’m not looking forward to “with our route hopping feature, you can go seamlessly from here to here” in the same vain as “this train also runs here, which you can do with freeroam”.

To me all it would do is highlight that every route in TSW is its own little bubble, with one usually being less feature rich than the other. Sounds great being able to go from Euston to Bakerloo, other than the fact that Bakerloo will look like it’s from a different game entirely.

Personally I’d have paid the piper for what the route would have cost to reach Birmingham, but respect that it’s not that simple. I’m still pretty excited for WCML, you’ve just got to remember that TSW is essentially a Tapas restaurant for routes.

It does raise the question though, if DTG can’t realistically give us City to City routes, are they going to take a serious run at looking at extensions. Something which I suspect a huge problem is my earlier point - everything in TSW is its own little bubble.

 

Very true, however it is a step closer to it.

you have to stop somewhere and logically on this one it’s Keynes. I don’t think most consoles would cope with trying to put Northampton in there as well. Also, do your average non enthusiast punter really want to be playing the game for more than around an hour?

one of the reasons I never play west Somerset is that it’s just too long in one go. Also the slow nature of it to be fair but still it’s not going to keep me stimulated. I think Keynes with its option of fast or slow or semi fast trips will do just nicely.

 

As I’ve said elsewhere the route hopping is a bit of a gimmick it’s true but it’s a step closer to something bigger.

as for continuing to Birmingham or wherever, in just don’t believe the consoles would have the capacity to handle it for one and also i would rather a shorter route was done well than a longer route was done badly.

 

Well, the game doesn’t load in everything at any one time, if a PS4 can load up a Euston Tile, it can certainly do Northampton.

With regards to time, DTG have told us the most popular times are 30-45 minutes, but there’s plenty of routes that exceed an hour, pushing 90 minutes.

 

How does that work wirh AI traffic? My understanding is that it loads all the traffic you’ll see when the game starts and that takes a lot of processing. Even if the stations aren’t loaded the movements of the AI stuff is.
One of the complaints we all make re TSW is there’s not enough other traffic. I’m kinda hoping that without the 221s and 805/807 stuff and no 319/730 that the route is going to be sufficiently busy I can just dump myself at harrow and watch stuff pass. So if a shorter (and I don’t think this short) route means more traffic I’m down for that.

in my experiences, freight shouldn’t be running on greens everywhere!!

 

Well that just folds into the reason why timetables get cutback where they need to be for those consoles. We don’t have details yet but we already know WCML & Frankfurt-Fulda are going to be cut back for the less powerful machines, along with the SKA timetable not going to them.

Not having long routes just comes back to time, as said by DTG on many occasions.

 

I have fond memories of that part of the route. I used to catch the Intercity from Birmingham International to London Euston once a month for meetings at the London HQ of the company I worked for. It was in the early 80's and BR used to do an amazing breakfast service in the 1st Class dining carriage. Just where the line parallels the M1 the train would reach it's maximum speed trying to show all the cars on the M1 just how slow they were travelling. The problem for passengers was, this coincided with the exact time the coffee was served along with the maximum bouncing onboard.

On a more serious note, I really hope that the WCML will not just end at Milton Keynes. I really hope that DTG plans to continue this line further north.

 

My memory is when we lived in the North East in the 60's/early 70's and my parents used the United Automobile coach service to/from London if going via for a holiday. The northbound Victoria to Newcastle (Gallowgate) runs via the M1 generally tended to pull in at the (then) Blue Boar Service Area. It was quite fascinating to a 8 or 9 year old lad to see the big AC electric locos screaming past as at that time, Newcastle and the surrounding area was 100% diesel traction.