Hello all, With the release of the upcoming Class 313 soon, today I am making a detailed route suggestion for the West Coastway – one of two routes it runs out of Brighton along with the East Coastway. We’ve known about the 313 for ages and, while I’m looking forward to its eventual release, I personally think it needs some new track to run on. I’ve played ECW too much and the drive to Lewes and Seaford gets a bit repetitive after all these years. Additionally, factor in that the 313 does not go to Eastbourne in real life means we can’t even use it on the whole route (well Scenario Planner you can, but ECW has a problem of backward spawning trains). Here are all the key details of the route, service pattern and rolling stock, plus pics from my own travels on the WCW route in real life. What section of the route: My suggestion is for the route to focus between Brighton and Portsmouth Harbour with the one-station branches to Littlehampton and Bognor Regis included. Length: Approximately 50 miles with the above combined. Rolling Stock: - Class 313 (pictured at Portsmouth Harbour) - Class 377/1 (pictured at Littlehampton) - Class 377/4 (Pictured at Littlehampton) DLC Layers - GWR Class 166 which could operate as AI out of Portsmouth. - South Western – with Clapham Junction now coming in Rush Hour, could this be a stepping stone for a new South Western route? If so, would add a majority of traffic around the Portsmouth area on WCW. - Thameslink Class 700: Operates limited services to Littlehampton. Stations on the route (not showing service patters/routes, just what there is): Brighton, Hove, Aldrington, Portslade, Fishersgate, Southwick, Shoreham-By-Sea, Lancing, East Worthing, Worthing, West Worthing, Durrington-on-Sea, Goring-By-Sea, Angmering, Littlehampton, Ford, Barnham, Bognor Regis, Chichester, Fishbourne, Bosham, Nutbourne, Southbourne, Emsworth, Warblington, Havant, Bedhampton, Hilsea, Fratton, Portsmouth & Southsea and Portsmouth Harbour. Littlehampton: Service Pattern: The WCW would have a wide array of services – long and short – to keep the route fresh, with an added bonus of additional ones coming from the Arun Valley Line and Brighton Main Line. This would make the route the most busiest around the junction at Ford station. These comprise different stopping patterns which the player could drive to/from: Brighton-Hove Shuttle Brighton-West Worthing Brighton-Littlehampton Brighton-Portsmouth Harbour and/or Portsmouth & Southsea Brighton-Southampton Central (driveable to/from Havant) Littlehampton-London Victoria (drivable to/from Hove; originating to/from BML) Littlehampton-Bognor Regis Shuttle Littlehampton-Portsmouth Bognor Regis-London Victoria (driveable to/from Ford; originating via Arun Valley Line, you'd drive this 4/8-car service) Portsmouth-London Victoria (driveable to/from Barnham; in real life this 4-car service eventually joins up with the 4/8-car service from Bognor Regis (see above) at Horsham – located on the Arun Valley Line – once-an-hour before continuing to Victoria) Southampton Central-London Victoria (driveable between Havant-Barnham; this 4-car service eventually joins with the Bognor-originating service at Horsham similar to above, once-an-hour) Final Comments: It fits nicely with the upcoming London Commuter (BML) Rush Hour route as you’d be able to drive London Victoria to Bognor Regis, Portsmouth and Southampton services as far as Three Bridges, then with the WCW route, you could then pick up the same services after they have traversed the Arun Valley Line. Thanks for reading, be sure to give your thoughts below and include anything I may have missed!
cloudyskies21 the 166 actually continues from Portsmouth all the way to Brighton , operating a semi - fast service
Maybe get rid of the AI services because then it’s unnecessary licensing for no reason. Plus, they said it’s hard to get Thameslink’s licence.
The TL and South Western stuff was listed as DLCs for additional services/AI. Also, in a file list on the EGS version of the game, Thameslink was found as a file in a list called "licensorlogos" implying they may have it. More generally, cloudyskies21, great suggestion, WCW is a route I would quite like to see one day.
Ah interesting, I thought it was just the 158s nowadays that just went to Brighton. A driveable 166 layer would be a great addition to an already interesting route. Cheers, much appreciated! Fingers crossed it's a route they might consider, it seems to be popular among the community, at least from the poll.
GWR are only running two return services each weekday and one return service Sat/Sun so whether they're AI or not is really immaterial That's out of 583 overall movements weekdays, 722 on Saturday and 432 on Sunday (taken from RTT)
The services vary a lot , trains operate to 6 final destinations from Brighton - Portsmouth , at Barnham the route spurs off to Southampton central
Oh, agreed, but I prefer it to be actual, and given you might as well try to get blood from a stone rather than get a thameslink license it seems the 377 and 313 are what we're going to (eventually) be stuck with alongside the occasional rail tour.
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:C96399/2021-08-16/detailed Just found that service on RTT... that'd be a good run to do in game... Down teh BML and along the WCW to Hastings...