Hi Dovetail team and community, I’ve noticed a lot of players, including myself, have shown interest in seeing light rail or tram systems in Train Sim World. Since Dovetail has talked about wanting to bring more players into the game and expand its variety, I wanted to share why I think light rail could be a big benefit to the game. Why It Would Be Valuable: Fresh Gameplay Variety: Right now, the game does an amazing job with heavy rail—commuter, passenger, and freight. But light rail brings a completely different style of operations—street running, tight curves, frequent stops, urban signaling systems, shared roadways with traffic, etc. This would add new challenges and a fresh experience for long-time players. Appeals to a Wider Audience: A lot of younger or casual rail fans are familiar with trams and city light rail systems more than freight or long-distance trains. Including these could attract new players who love city transit like LRT, metro, and streetcars. Realism & Modern Transit Representation: Modern transportation isn’t only heavy rail. Cities all around the world—like Toronto, San Diego, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Melbourne, Berlin, and Manchester—depend on light rail. Bringing those systems into TSW would reflect today’s real-world rail environment more completely. Creative Route Possibilities: Light rail opens up so many iconic routes: San Diego Trolley, Portland MAX, Los Angeles Metro, Salt Lake City Traxx, Docklands Light Railway, Manchester Metrolink, Netherlands tram networks, German Stadtbahn systems, etc. These would fit perfectly into the existing TSW engine, especially with pedestrian environments, AI cars, and city detail already improving in recent releases. Community Demand: There have been repeated requests (at least from I've seen) from players over time for light rail content. Many of us are looking for more urban-style operations, shorter routes, and more “up-close” city-level immersion. Adding light rail would show the community that these requests are being heard. Closing Thoughts: I fully understand it may take more work—different signalling, street-level assets, pedestrians, vehicle interaction, licensing, etc. Yes I completely understand that. But even one light rail route or DLC would be a huge step and could test the interest level while expanding what TSW is capable of going long ways into the future of the game. Thank you for maybe even remotely considering this and for all the work you continue to put into the game. It goes unnoticed and I’m sharing this out of passion for Train Sim World and the hope of seeing it grow into an even more diverse rail simulation.
Vintage Blackpool for me, before the Flexities and corrupting the Heritage fleet with pantographs, door pods and fibreglass lifeguards.
