Okay, let me start off first by saying that in 90% of the services I have driven I've never met another AI train. For me, this is really boring and there is no point in me playing the service mode. The 10% where I've met another train, it was a passenger train waiting on a red signal for me and my freight train to pass. This is not realistic. Freight trains don't have priority over passenger trains. Second of all, on the Schnellfahrstrecke Köln-Aachen route, the freight trains use the fast track. Why? You are making all the ICE trains late. At least you could do, is get a signal to 'pull over' on a siding somewhere, wait for the ICE to pass and continue your drive again. This would add some change and the services wont be that monotonous. Also, when I finished the freight service, the objective marker to stop, had me stop on a passenger platform. This seem like lazy work from the creators, as they could've made you drive to a siding somewhere and have the service end there. This is all I can think off for now. If you have any other suggestions, please write them down below. I love this game so much, but stuff like this is 'killing' it for me.
If you're playing on PS4, routes don't really have other trains or passengers due to memory saving layers. DTG is trying to work on memory improvements so that you can see more services on the line and more passengers at stations. Unfortunately, this is a problem on all of the previous generation consoles; This is because TSW 2020 and TSW2 really push the capabilities of the previous gen to the limit .PS4 and Xbox One have lower res textures too to save some memory. Be patient and the updates will come out eventually. I personally don't like that DTG releases content first and fixes bugs later, I don't think anybody does, but eventually the fixes will come. I do agree with you on the freight priority though.
The freight services and ICE services do not clash at all in SKA, so no freight train will make an ICE train late. The other lines on the route are S-Bahn lines, where freight doesn’t run so the freight is on the mainline where it would be in real life. I don’t think there are any suitable places for the freight to stop other than stations. Once you are finished driving the AI drive them off the map, going to wherever they go. The timetables do tend to follow a repeating pattern so things do get a bit predictable and it’s one of many things that people would like improving, along with the number of services. Passengers are almost nonexistent on SKA and some other routes, and are much more scarce on consoles than on PC. It’s another thing you just have to get used to I’m afraid, until they upgrade the passenger system.
Yes, routes need more services/other trains passing. To keep this realistic though, DTG has to only use the real-life timetable, as they did with Hauptstrecke Munich - Augsburg. I hope in the future they can bring the real-life timetable to other routes like the Bakerloo Line and LIRR.
