Other Timetable Service(s) With Impossible Goals

On my way to fulfill requirements for the remaining trophies I did some very short services on the RRO route, mostly driving a train to the depot or putting it into service. These services don't use objectives with a given ETA.

But then there's this one-stop service at 01:50 am, going from Wuppertal Hbf to Wuppertal Steinbeck. After letting the passengers board the train I'm stalled until 01:51:30 before I'm allowed to close the doors and get a yellow signal. No problem with that. Then with the next objective the service turns to an impossible mission: the next stop shall be at 01:52, that means 30 seconds for everything following, accelerate (max speed 50/60 kps), drive ~ 700 m and come to a halt at the indicated spot. I'm not Ethan Hunt ... XD

This is just one good example, and there are more of them, not necessarily on the RRO, but definitely on the LIRR. I'm assuming these services have never been tested ... yea, I know, it's bad word, but I don't care ... bad words are okay for a bad performance.

 

Those hbf to steinbeck services and the return ones are a total pain. They clutter up the timetable causing endless scrolling to get to a proper journey. As to the impossible timings, the timetables are tested by letting them run with 100% AI trains (they speed them up somehow too) so the timings for players are not checked by a human for the vast majority of services. Players can never do the services as fast as an AI can plus AI trains don’t follow PZB rules or signalled speed limits, and in the case of Peninsular Corridor at least, differential speed limits (an AI freight train runs at the passenger speed limit). This results in lots of very tight or impossible goals for the player on many services in TSW.

I did a service on MSB today where I was running behind another train which resulted in me being 30 seconds late at the next to last station. This led to a freight train being released on the same line in the opposite direction and a 3 minute wait for a green light. This doesn’t happen with the AI running the service because it turns up on time with its rule breaking and lightning acceleration and it is allowed to go before the freight train which has to wait instead. The timing is so tight.

In a way it sometimes simulates what can happen on a real railway but for a one stop journey less than a kilometre in length between the Wuppertals there really should be a way to make it on time, so that's a really bad error. Would have taken all of two minutes to check.

 

Just out of curiosity I went again, but let the AI drive. The signal changed to yellow at 01:51:40 and the train arrived in Steinbeck at 01:52:57.
I can achieve this myself when driving that train, but why do I get a shortened ETA? It should rather be rounded up than down.

 

Yeah this is also the case on the LIRR, especially on services coming from Hempstead. If you want some realism and more challenge, you play with ATC, but AI will not care and always just runs at max speed, so very often it's impossible to be on time with ATC on, because ATC keeps you slower on several occasions.

Kinda silly that a train simulator doesn't care about simulating proper train behavour and rules.

 

You are right, they do. All services for the S-Bahn line S9 do not go any further, because Wuppertal Hbf is the eastern terminus and they go in a westerly and northwesterly direction to stations that are not available on the RRO line, with the exception of Steinbeck. If it were up to me, they should have either omitted these services completely, or extended the route so that it made sense.

In the meantime I checked the goals for another, longer S-Bahn service from Hagen to Wuppertal. I wasn't too surprised to see the same behaviour, shortened ETAs for user-controlled services. AI trains take up to 58 seconds longer and have (as a side effect) quite short boarding times.

 

That’s surprising because I meant that AI trains usually make the times set for the player by accelerating faster and ignoring some rules. That’s what I’ve seen on other routes and haven’t really checked out the AI behaviour on RRO. The timetables must be quite relaxed for AI on RRO compared to other routes if it allows the AI trains to go slower than the player is expected to drive and still not get in the way of other trains. It all adds to the challenge I suppose.

 

In fact, the AI adheres to the speed limits, and the player should do so to get the maximum number of APs. The difference is actually the ETA, which isn't evaluated for the AI, but will always be the reason for deducting APs if the player doesn't arrive sharp to the minute. Also the player will always have to wait a full minute (or more) before he may close the doors, even if he's late.

 

If I drive at 100%, I can still fit into the overall timetable on RRO. But I have to ignore everything related to passenger comfort.

HRR is a whole different story. Even if I accelerate at the moment the doors close and drive at 100% power at the speed limit, I still can't reach some of the stations in time. Scenarios on that route are even worse!

If I compare real train schedules to TSW Timetable mode on RRO:
Real S8 service: 14:16 Hagen and 14:59 Wuppertal-Steinbeck
TSW S8 service: 14:21 Hagen and 15:01 Wuppertal-Steinbeck

Funnily enough, services on HRR seem to reflect their real life counterparts, but they spawn you at the wrong time.
Testing the RE11 Bochum - Duisburg:
Real RE11 service: leaves Bochum at 15:33 and arrives at Duisburg at 15:59
TSW RE11 service: spawns you at 15:33 and arrives at Duisburg at 15:58.

The first stop at Wattenscheid is at 15:38, the same as in real life. But you lose two minutes before you even set out with departure time of 15:35.
You have 180 seconds to do 6.4 kilometers, requiring an average speed of 128 km/h to reach on time. As an experiment, I did this right now, obeying the speed limit, I left Bochum at 100% power from the get go and stopped in Wattenschied using an EMERGENCY BRAKE.
The time was 15:38:20, so I was 20 seconds late.

Second test - an AI service:
I spawned at 15:30 in Bochum, surrounded by NICHT EINSTEIGEN trains (the train should go from Kassel or Hamm, but nevermind that detail).
The AI driver sets out at 15:25:12 and accelerates to about 108 km/h at the 120 km/h speed limit.
He then accelerated slowly to around 143 km/h and then comfortably slowed down to a stop at 18:38:45.

So my question is - Who the heck sets these times and can I see him actually DRIVE the train and arrive ON TIME???

 

I don’t bother trying to get anywhere on time anymore. I keep to the speed limits and try to stop in the correct position on the platforms. If I’m a little late then that’s okay, it’s not my fault. I do sometimes leave a station a few seconds early if I know the next stop isn’t achievable but mainly I don’t bother. I don’t use PZB either, just to give myself a chance. I used to but now I mainly leave it off and use Sifa if I feel like it. I use all the safety features for UK and US stuff though. They are genuinely helpful rather than oppressive.

I think the timetables are deliberately made tighter than real life to make driving a bigger challenge. I’m hoping that with the introduction of realistic adhesion in TSW2 that the timetables are more lenient (realistic) because accelerating full pelt out of the station and hard braking won’t be possible, so the adhesion becomes the challenge rather than unrealistic times. That’s my hope. I believe Matt, as senior producer, has the biggest hand in setting the timetables.