Over the Christmas period I decided so dive deep into German safety systems and the many German routes I own through the bundled content, having purchased every base game since TSW2020, and Rush Hour I’d dabbled a bit before but now I have well and truly fallen for the German railways and I’m looking at purchasing another route but unsure which one. Any recommendations? I currently own… Frankfurt-Fulda Main-Spessart Bahn Nahverkehr-Dresden Köln-Aachen Kassel-Würzburg S-Bahn Voralberg
Rosenheim to Strasbourg and Bremen to Oldenburg are worthwhile purchases in my opinion. My two favourite German routes are Niddertahlbahn and Linke Rheinstrecke, they are both set in the 1990's if you don't mind backdated routes.
Rosenheim-Salzburg and Niddertalbahn would be my recommendations as well, but also the underrated Maintalbahn - which is even more fun if you own the BR 218.
There is some freight on Niddertahlbahn with the 361 I think it is, it's a rural single track line so the freight isn't large Intermodal traffic. Linke Rheinstrecke has some freight, although it uses the BR110 which were not regularly used for freight at this time. Hopefully someone at some point will make a suitable loco. +1 for Maintahlbahn, I too think it's underrated and it is worth getting the 218. Although I think you need Hamburg to Lubeck to get it to show up in Maintahlbahn as that's where is uses the coaches from.
Salzburg... Strasbourg is in France... I like every German route, but if I have to name 3 favourites, it would be: Salzburg - Rosenheim, Nahverkehr Dresden and Hauptstrecke München - Augsburg. I would count that as Austrian route.
and to anyone who uses a route that crosses a border between Austria & Germany but only counts it as an Austrian route. God we are such terrible people
Maintalbahn is currently my go to route. Although the 642 has its faults and not as good as the one in Zusi 3 (which I’ve just been driving), it’s something different to the identikit electric interurban routes DTG have otherwise populated TSW with for Germany. Diesel, single track but relatively fast particularly if you do a RE service. Rhine Valley also breaks the mould slightly, but the loud fan noise on the 103 blocking out all the other audio (as discussed elsewhere) puts me off.
All the others that have been mentioned above are good choices. The only, in my opinion, not recommendable routes are Ruhr Sieg Nord and Rhein Ruhr Osten. RSN isnt bad but its most likely the one showing its age in all categorys. RRO is "ok" if you dont mind the drastic changes in track within curves or hills which are the reason its a once a month route for me. My suggestion is the one im also following right now. Wait for Mittenwaldbahn. TSG never dissapoints and the backdated route and content looks the most realistic i have ever seen to this day. You get many new pieces of rolling stock with a 1020 and also a bordercrossing. Its not guaranted to be good, but the chance its going to be bad is the same like Skyhook fixing the 187.
I’m all with theorganist. Bremen-Oldenburg has classic traction and an excellent timetable. Mainz-Koblenz is the only real vintage mainline and the 103 is exceptionally well done. Niddertalbahn does a tremendous job at making the branch line romanticism come to life. The last two routes also help each other feel more alive via layering. As Vinination says, Mittenwaldbahn is looking to be an excellent route and thankfully pulls from a large pool of real classics - proper Silberlinge, backdated 111, E94 (one of the oldest locos in TSW now with the original build dates in the 1940s). Assuming everything is up to the established TSG standard, this will certainly be a route not to be missed.
No problem of course. As an Austrian that just "jumped" into my eyes. But that wasn't intended as criticism, but rather a "hint". In fact there is a "Straßburg" (German version of "Strasbourg") in Austria, but thats only a small town with approx. 2000 inhabitants S-Bahn Vorarlberg has about 90% of its length in Austria. Salzburg - Rosenheim is the opposite.
Some great suggestions already, absolutely agree that Rosenheim-Salzburg is fantastic. For my recommendation I'd say Hamburg-Lubeck is a route to have. Yes, while it's an older route that isn't TOD 4, gameplay-wise it has, and still is, one of my favourites. There's a lot of variety regarding services, plus with the amazing 218 and n-Wagen coaches which offers a completely different experience. Additionally, there's quite a bit of freight/shunting services, plus a couple 101 and ICE 3 services too. Finally, what also makes this route great is it's very busy overall, plus Hamburg Hbf is really epic and one of the best in TSW, plus now Lubeck Hbf is busy now too with a lot of AI traffic with the 628.
I would repeat what others said but sorting it out in a different way, so you can choose depending on your preference: Branch: Niedertalbahn OLD: Linkerheinstrecke Diesel: HBL (with the BR 218 add on) Depending on what I want I play one of the three above, mostly HBL, as I love the BR 218. Special mention to BRO, which I used to play a lot, but was replaced recently by Frankfurt the moment we got the BR 111 there.
If you get HRR and the BR 101 in a discounted bundle that will add a lot to the existing routes you own and HRR has some nice runs on its own with the 101. Alternatively you can get the Expert 101 that has timetables for a number of those routes. I also quite like Semmeringbahn as something quite different from urban German routes while still not looking it's age as it came out during TSW4.
