Yes, many of the timetables don't exactly match up, but they're often "close." In some cases I understand they're from different years or even decades, so I can see why the timetables don't match exactly. However, you'd think for the newer routes that are for the same time they should match up... because that's what a train would be doing in real life. I think there's a great opportunity for a third party to start creating scenario content using linked "journey mode" series to link those timetables up one to another in a series. For example, you should be able to link a route down GWE from Reading to London. Then the next run is London down to Brighton on the LBC. Then when you get to Brighton,it loades into the ECW Brighton to say Eastbourne. That's entirely possible to do in real life (I don't know if there's a layover at either London or Brighton, but you get my point. Even if there were, you wouldn't have to "sit" through it, it would just load into the next run.) Call it something like "Reading by the Sea Shore" or something, and that's a 3-part "journey." Package maybe ten of them together and release a pack for $4.99. a Just Trains run from Carlisle down to Preston and Preston to Crewe (when the new route comes out) would be nice too. (Or Preston to Blackpool) People WOULD pick them up because it's what... 50 cents for a fun journey across the country without the hassle of having to find and load up the next route? You'd have to "fudge" a few times if they don't exactly match up (as you said), and make sure they're the same sort of consist. However, it'd be a huge value added to TSW. I know we're discussing US routes in this thread, so let's add a couple for the US... maybe You could do Providence to Boston to Worcester with the same MBTA stock. You could also take a ride down the Antelope line from Palmdale into LA Union Station, from there out down San Bernadino, then up Cajon Pass to Barstow. It sounds a bit weird being a "U" shape, but that would make sense for a drop off/pick up in the San Bernadino yards freight yards. That's what a freight train crew might actually do (say bring a load of military boxcars from the factories in Palmdale down to San Bernadino to drop off, then hook up some freight that came into the Port of Los Angeles and to San Bernadino that has to go to Barstow to be transferred for a cross-country trip on the mainline) I don't really know enough about the setup of the lines in Germany to say what goes there, but you get the idea. Each route already has something like that for an introduction to it, so the only challenge would be finding what makes sense time and rolling stock wise between the routes. Where there isn't something in the timetable itself, just create a scenario instead that DOES match up with the next route. For 50 cents, people would pay for the convenience and novelty.
I completely agree with this suggestion ! Like in your example, Carlisle - Crewe, but, obviously, it has to be the same rolling stock. And we shouldn't have, for example, torrential rain arriving in Preston, and then, right after the loading screen, glorious sunshine when we depart... And one day we'll be able to choose the rolling stock, the departure time, etc... You see, we're not so far from my suggestion in the other thread...
