Hi! Today I am suggesting a route which I think would make a great addition to TSW2 and I hope many agree. I am suggesting the route from Reading to Bournemouth with Cross Country. It can also include southwestern railway services. The route is around 75 miles. Cross country operate services from Manchester Piccadiliy to Bournemouth and the route I am suggesting would be the last chunk of it. Southwestern Railway operate trains to Bournemouth from Basingstoke. This is around 60 miles. Either of these would be great but it would be awesome to have cross country trains running from Reading and SWR running from Basingstoke. Driving these services would be a mix of fast driving and stopping services, Leaving the in-land areas of Reading and Basingstoke behind and heading south to the coast would be fantastic! The rolling stock which could be included are: For cross country: The voyager! (class 220) This would be awesome to see in the sim and these are typically formed of 4 or 5 coaches. They have a max speed of 125mph. I think this would be a fantastic train to get behind the controls of and will offer a really challenging yet fun and different style of driving. The southwestern trains to be included are the class 444 and 450. Both of these are unique trains which will be great fun to drive. These are typically formed of 8, 10 and 12 coaches and have a max speed of 100mph. They run express passenger services. This would run from Basingstoke to Reading. Secondly, the class 450 which is very similar in looks and driving. The 450 Desiro has a maximum speed of 100mph and runs in 8,10 and 12 coach configurations. This would run the Basingstoke to Bournemouth leg. The trip from Reading would be around 1hr 15 and from Basingstoke around 1hr. There is so much potential for some awesome scenarios here and the timetable would be packed. A bit about SWR: SWR are a huge Rail operator in the UK and are based at London Waterloo. They operate a large and ever expanding fleet on express and suburban routes mainly. Stations along the way: The stops between Basingstoke and Bournemouth would include: Winchester, Shawford, Eastleigh, Southampton airport parkway, Southampton Central, Totton, Brockenhurst, Sway, New Milton, Hinton Admiral, Christchurch, Pokesdown and Bournemouth. The stops between Reading and Bournemouth include Winchester, Southampton airport Parkway, Southampton central and Bournemouth. Limited however lots of fast driving in an awesome train! Reading is a hugely busy station including the Great Western Mainline, Southwestern mainline and some branch offs. Basingstoke is a busy station along the Southwestern mainline. Bournemouth is a busy station with trains stopping there and others going straight through. In conclusion, this is a route I would really like to see and I reckon a lot of the community would be interested ( I may be completely wrong!). I think it offers a challenging yet fun route with a completely new set of trains and operators on it. I think there is an unbelievable amount of potential with Southwestern Railway reading through forums and other suggestions I believe SWR is wanted by many! Im aware licensing may be an issue for Cross Country and SWR however this route would be absolutely fantastic if DTG bring this route or a route like this I think it would have huge sucess. Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think! I think DTG have done and are doing an absolutely fantastic job with TSW2, it can't be easy producing such high quality content ( in my opinion). I wish some people would cut them some slack. I would like to make it clear I am in no way demanding this, Its just a route I would love to see and think the rest of the community would find enjoyable to play! Again, thank you very much for reading and let me know down below what you all think! If you have any suggestions for alterations Im more than happy to listen. Happy driving!
By the way, GWR operate stopping services between Reading and Basingstoke. They use class 165s today but a 166 can sub in easily. There's also a good amount of freight that use the route from Southampton. Great suggestion though! Would love to see it!
Thank you for the info! That would be a great addition to the suggestion and just goes to show the potential this has. Thank you
I would enjoy this route as someone who used to use it a lot because I had family who lived in Bournemouth. Also because it’s been like 4+ years of TSW and we still don’t have voyagers.
I completely agree! I think the voyagers are awesome trains which would be amazing in the game, hard to put them in because they’re typically long distance and hard to find an interesting enough leg on a long route which is why I think Reading-Bournemouth would be a great opportunity to bring in the voyager. Thank you for your comment it’s great to know you’d like to see this !
