To The Coast! This is my suggestion to develop and eventually incorporate the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway Line between London Fenchurch Street and Shoeburyness Via Basildon, with some services also routing via Ockendon! Trenitalia, already in the game under the Avanti West Coast brand, returns under the c2c brand, with the unique Class 357 (built specifically for c2c) taking the reigns as the line's main powerhouse, with Class 720 speeding in for much-needed backup during the peak hours and at weekends. It'd be a true delight to finally see this route incorporated and especially the uniqueness of the Class 357, because, as previously mentioned above, these units were built specifically for c2c and therefore are exclusive to this line.
I’d love to see this line, but maybee later after release they should have like a diesel legends type add on based in the early 2000’s that included the class 317 and 312, and it reuses the 357 as well. Or, it could be based in the years 1997-1998 were the class 312, 310 (basically identical to 312), 317 and the iconic class 302 in its fully refurbished state. I think that would be the finishing touch for this already promising add on!
Wow, another request for this route. Not a criticism at all. Anything electric and east of London is fine by me. Also see avatar! I should note that by the time of the annual TSW update/big release in late summer/earlier C2C will be no more as the franchise ends on 20th July and the route becomes the second TOC to fall into the hands of Great British Railways. The DfT have been more willing to work with DTG on past routes where the TOCs are "in-house" (South Eastern and LNER for example) so I feel positive that will continue. It would be great to celebrate the start of the re-nationalisation of our train services with one of the three routes that will be GBR branded in 2025 (South Western Railway/LTS/Greater Anglia) and station signs in the new GBR font. Details of the new logo (and possible future livery) are due to be unveiled in the next couple of weeks once the UK Parliament is back from holiday. You're almost 99.99% correct that the 357s were unique to the LTS/C2C. In 2004/5 National Express East Anglia (then known as "ONE") were short of units following the withdrawal of the last few Class 312s and the further loss of the 322s that temporarily replaced them so they hired 5 Class 357s from C2C for Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria services. I think it lasted 6-8 months before the units returned to their regular duties for C2C. The knock-on effect saw a return of a handful of Class 317s diagrams to GEML.
