How about the Stockholm area for a future release of TSW? It's an interesting area, which offers a lot of variety in routes and rolling stock. The route: There's a commuter train network (the pendeltåg) which connects Stockholm to its suburbs, while there's also an extensive amount of long distance traffic which connects Sweden's capital to Oslo and Copenhagen, as well as offering a direct service to one of the northernmost stations of the planet - Narvik in Norway. Route map of the commuter network: The route map is slightly outdated, as a new line for the commuter trains (Citybanan) opened earlier this year which released a lot of capacity in the Stockholm Central area for longer distance trains. Stations: Stockholm's Central Station has a majestic building and a really nice concourse. While the platforms are a bit run down, the Swedish railways are busy upgrading them to give them a nicer appear. Stockholm City: Citybanan is a project which can be compared to Crossrail: by building a new tunnel underneath the city and opening new stations, journey times for commuters have been shortened, while more capacity has been created for commuter trains as well as long distance trains (at the main station). Arlanda airport: Arlanda Express is a high speed service between Stockholm Central and two dedicated station at the city's main airport, Arlanda. It uses purpose built trains and infrastructure, part financed by the airport itself (like Heathrow). Arlanda Airport has three stations, two of which (north and south, located close to the terminals) are served exclusively by the Arlanda Express. The 3rd station, Arlanda Central, is served by SJ as well as the pendeltåg. Rolling stock: Pendeltåg trains are operated by MTR under a concession let by SL (Stockholm's equivalent of TfL) using Alstom-built X60 EMU's: From Stockholm Central, multiple TOCs operate regional and long distance services. SJ and SJ Regional operate services using SJ2000, SJ3000, Coradia Duplex and loco hauled stock: MTR operate an open access intercity service between Stockholm and Göteborg using Stadler-built FLIRT units (derived from the ones built for NSB), while Arlanda Express use 'Precoradia' X3 trains:
There definitely is freight activity around Stockholm, but I have to admit I haven't really looked into that as I am more interested in the passenger railway.
They've never done a scandinavian railroad before, as far as I know. How big is the Scandinavian train sim community? Is there enough interest out there for something like this?
A Scandinavian train sim community definitely exists. There seem to be quite a number of ongoing projects, one guy even built the entire mainline network of Denmark in one huge map for Train Simulator: Northern Europe. Don't let the size of Scandinavia fool you: Denmark, Sweden and Norway have a combined population of only 21 million: 2/3rds of that of the tiny Benelux area.
Would love a Scandinavian route in TSW! I hope DTG are looking into this. Route proposals for Sweden/Denmark would be: Chopenhagen to Malmö, with the EMU's X2, X31 and X61 Stockholm to Uppsala with the EMU's X2, X3 and X60 Stockholm to Södertälje with the EMU's X2 and 74, and the Electric loco Rc6 with coaches
Sorry but I'm bumping this because this would be amazing. I live in Uppsala and I can help with photos of stations on Line 40 (Uppsala <-> Södertälje) if needed.
