As we now are starting to get multiple routes with a stop at the same station (E.g. Brighton for East Coastaway and London-Brighton) I am suggesting that DTG look to building future content around the idea of a hub, a station that has multiple routes passing through and where you can see all the activity on the lines at once. The idea is I could stand on say Brighton station and watch trains arrive from Eastborne or from London Victoria and there would be more activity and traffic because I can see both. In a hub I don't have control of anything I am really just watching AI traffic going back and forth. If I enter a service and take control then I am moved over to that route. From then on the game acts as if I am on that route and the trains I can see from the other route(s) are just AI traffic. If I get off the train and give up control I am back to the hub, and if I then get on a train from the other route and take control I am passed over to that route and the other items all become AI traffic. If entering trains is too much, then perhaps ticket barriers could be used as the point where you pass from one route to another. Therefore there are at least 3 states for the player: On Route A On Route B In a Hub (there may be more than 2 routes meeting at a station) At any time the player is either part of one of the routes and playing that route with AI traffic visible, or in a Hub which is a specific station and is just watching a mash-up of AI traffic from all the routes that use that station based on the combined 24 hour timetables. I think this would work nicely on Brighton but also for future content in say St Pancras where there is a huge station and only two lines are ever used. Also in the NEC if they want to head further south, or in Germany around the Ruhr area where several routes share a station. It is the blank areas that break the immersion, the silent areas where there are no trains or the only trains you see are probably 10% of the actual traffic on that station. Hubs could use portals to push trains in and out and create the background scenery so that you get the feeling that you can sit on a station and watch the railways in action around you. But at any time you can get involved and start driving.
On the NEC, Washington DC is the ideal hub for multiple routes, along with Philadelphia and New York.
Also Duisburg on Hauptstrecke Rhein-Ruhr because that's where trains from the Netherlands via Oberhausen Hbf on the Duisburg Oberhausen Arnhem Railway arrive transfer is available to RE1 to Hamm via Bochum RB33 to Schnellfahrstrecke Köln-Aachen via Mönchengladbach and S1 towards Dusseldorf or Dortmund. S3 on Hauptstrecke Rhein-Ruhr can be extended to Oberhausen Hbf if Duisburg Oberhausen-Arnhem Railway my suggestion was chosen to link with Hauptstrecke Rhein-Ruhr via The Oberhausen Hbf Müllheim link or Duisburg Hbf North end. Aachen Hbf on Schnellfahrstrecke Köln-Aachen can be a home because you have international trains going to Brussels and Liege in Belgium however they need to perform do a Voltage change 15kv 16.7hz Sifa PZB LZB 1.95m pantographs to SNCB 3kv DC.
