Now that route hopping is a thing.... what are the biggest "missing links" that should be focused on to connect existing routes? For example now that there's a route from London to Milton-Keynes, connecting Milton-Keynes to Leicester would connect the MML to the London network, enabling you to drive a huge chunk of the country. A little bit from Nottingham to Grantham hooks up the whole ECML... etc. Which "missing links" would be the best to focus on?
the highspeed line Frankfurt-Cologne (Cologne-Rhine/Main) could connect KAH and FTF resulting in a over 320 km long beast of a route from Aachen to Fulda.
I think your getting the Wcml mixed up with the Mml, Leicester goes to St Pancras not Euston or Milton Keynes.
No point in doing this with the feature as it stands in TSW5. You will exit your train, run to a marker, switch routes and wait for the next train. You can do that already via the main menu.
I mean... they're parallel so you could do both pretty easily. But if going to St Pancras it can link to the SEHS. Since all the London stations basically are counted as the "same" thing (you can take ECW into Victoria and then magically link to Paddington or St Pancras with route hopping), it's all pretty much the same thing. From "London super station" you can make it to any of the lines out.
I think the best routes would be: Ashford International - Eastbourne: connects SEHS with ECW. About 40 miles through mostly countryside, so it would be the easiest. King's Cross - Peterborough: since St Pancras and King's Cross are next to each other, St Pancras could be included. Then it connects SEHS with ECML. About 80 miles. Would probably be the most popular, but also the most difficult to model. St Pancras - Leicester: connects SEHS with MML. About 100 miles. Leicester - Birmingham New Street: connects MML with BCC. Birmingham New Street - Milton Keynes: connects BCC with WCML South. About 60 miles.
It’ll get loads of use in route articles. It’s going to be free roam all over again “hey we didn’t do this but you can do it with this”.
To do so you still need the routes to connect however. Whether the feature exists or not, even pretending to do a drive across the UK requires that you have those routes to drive ON, even if you use the main menu...
Honestly? Eastbourne-Ashford International would be amazing. It’ll introduce another turbostar, link up two amazing routes and it also has the option of including the 1066 line between Hastings and Tonbridge (Or Tonbridge-Ashford). Plus the journey takes an hour and a half at most, and it includes a couple single track sections east of Hastings between Ore and Rye where a passing loop forms before going back to single track until Appledore
The only way you could do Milton Keynes to Leicester direct is go back in time, reopen the Northampton to Market Harborough line which latterly only had one parliamentary train a day in each direction, in the middle of the night! Otherwise you would need to extend WCMLS to Nuneaton, then bring in the route from Birmingham to Leicester.
Milton Keynes to Leicester is 44 miles by rail, Glasgow to Edinburgh is 42 miles by rail, as that's a shorter distance I'm guessing it would be equally valid to just route hop it rather than drive the 385.
I would like to see more routes using Birmingham new street as ther is so little traffic there, if you do a early morning run you'll see a few 323 parked there but other than that it is just dead nothing going on if you terminate or pass through on a service you hardly see any action there
