Can The Db Br 642 Substitute Onto Tharandter Rampe?

I was just watching the Maintalbahn preview stream from last year and stumbled upon this pretty clear confirmation that the DB BR 642 can substitute onto Tharandter Rampe. The same thing is also mentioned in the launch day article. But to my knowledge, that didn’t end up being the case even though it was advertised as a feature all the way up to launch. Does anyone know more, was the substitution perhaps available at some point and then later disappeared?

 

It is weird that they promised that because there definitely isn't anything on DCZ where it would make sense for the 642 to sub in.

 

I initially thought it may have just been a miscommunication or typo in the launch day article. But multiple things indicate that it was actually planned and then just didn’t end up being released for some reason:

• Jan (I believe) confirmed the layering in the preview stream, where both Matt and Lukas (the latter being very involved with the development of the route) were present, and none of them said that the info was incorrect.
• Some users called out the lack of the promised substitution in the comments of the launch day article post on the forums, but the article was not amended or edited as a result and they never got a response.

What if the 642 does substitute on Tharandter Rampe, but not into playable service and instead just appears as static stock or AI somewhere? But I don’t think anyone has seen it appear on the route at all.

 

Probably not the represented year, but would this "make sense"?


This aside, why not make it at least possible to choose it instead of the 612, it certainly *could* at least technically replace one, no?

 

Before DB took over the "VVO Diesel Network" from another operator in late 2021, they ran Desiros on S3 for a while so their drivers could get some hours in on the "new" trains. That was almost ten years after the year TSW DCZ is set, only lasted for a few weeks, and can't work through substitution in TSW because it's not the same number of vehicles.

I can't imagine they'd ever have replaced a 612 with a 642, which is much smaller, slower, and less powerful, in real life.