The Avelia Liberty is slower than the Speedance

[SkyRex]

Since I had the impression already, I made a thorough test of all the important modern trains. And as it turns out the Avelia Liberty is indeed one of the worst passenger trains. Even being beaten on a long straight (Very Large Map, 1:5) by the Dualstox and the Shinkansen 0.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1i5chgDxe8

It seems ridicolusly slow in acceleration, not even reaching Top speed on the longest straight possible in the game (without experimental sizes)

Other interesting finds include:
- The doubled ALCO PA being almost the same as the GE C40 for less money
- The Chinese DF5 being quite garbage
- The Speedance beating the ICE 1
- The Pioneer Zephyr beating the Metroliner
- The BR 185 being almost equal to the more modern Eurodual

[CocoJacoby]

It is way too slow and has no acceleration I do not believe it's accurately represented. Also it has this annoying clickety clack like it's running on jointed rail all the time.

[Vimpster]

Although it is a shame that a lot of the "fast" trains are so useless at being fast, you can still benefit profit wise from their higher speed rating since the ticket price per passenger is higher. Though if the volume of passengers being transported annually is lower than another "slower" train than the higher ticket price won't necessarily compensate for transporting fewer people.

You do have to be careful though as even with a higher ticket price the faster train is not necessarily better. For instance, I had 2 trains on a line that were each made up of 3 M-300 units. They go 100 km/h and with 3 per train they carried 60 passengers each. I "upgraded" them to the Metroliner which carries 80 passengers each and goes almost 200 km/h. But the M-300 units could accelerate so much faster than the Metroliner that the much higher ticket price and increased capacity still left the Metroliner transporting at a slightly inferior rate and only making very similar profits due to the much higher running costs. Conclusion, the Metroliner is a terrible train that has no business being used for short to medium length trips.

[Zapp]

It uses 5000 kW to move 748 tons. That's a power to weight ratio of 6.7

The Dualstox uses 3,800 kW to move 360 t (p/w 10.6)
The Shinkansen 0 uses 5,920 kW to move 440 t (p/w 13.45)

Since the Avelia Liberty has HALF the p/w of the Shinkansen, there's no need to experiment - it's obvious from the performance figures how this would end!

Curiously, it's listed as having 7000 kW, not 5000 kW, on Wikipedia. The listed specs say 9,280 kW, but that's likely a theoretical specification rather than what the power cars can put "into" the rails, as it were.

Also there is this (which I haven't tested):
"Avelia Liberty Power Fix"
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1941168504

This brings the p/w ratio of the Avelia Liberty up to 8.56, which is still not great. (In fact, it's still terrible for a modern EMU)

Do note that US safety regulations result in significantly heavier rail vehicles than needed in Europe or Asia, despite US safety not being particularly great. You might even think the road and air industries had a hand in this...

If the trainset had the same weight to capacity ratio as the Dualstox, an Avelia Liberty carrying 162 passengers would weigh only 295 tonnes, and its listed power of 5,000 kW would make it very fast indeed, winning the race against both the Dualstox and the Shinkansen 0 (p/w 16.9)!

[Pitagoras991]

Yeah, game balance...

This game is seriously unbalanced... Some vehicles are almost useless, while others are OP (semi balanced with price and running cost, but seriously CHS4 beats EVERYTHING whan it it apears) and there are some niches that are not filled with mods

Also, bear in mind that a lot of locos can reach top speed only with coaches that came into the game much later than these locos...

[Zapp]

The CHS4 on Asian maps and the BR 103.1 on European ones, yeah.

Quite telling of the inability or disinterest of the US to provide strong and clean locos that on American maps you need to wait all the way until 2010(!) for the HHP8...

[Tsubame ⭐]

Necro.

But not surprising, while on paper faster than both, it rarely spends any time at high speeds. Courtesy of the ageing, meandering, and the heavy mixed traffic in the Northeast Corridor.

At least the Dualstox and the Shinkansen 0 consistently achieve their maximum speeds on the lines they are/were used at.

Being intentionally a very heavy loco/consist, much more than the other consists mentioned - due to the strict crashworthiness standards in the US - does not help either.

[Zapp]

Agreed.

In my opinion the "strict crashworthiness standards" in the US helps only car manufacturers and airlines, not rail passengers.

(It's not as if countries that allow lighter rolling stock have horrific accident statistics. In fact, when you think about it, it's not as if the US has especially impressive rail safety statistics at all...)

[Pitagoras991]

@Zapp

You are complaining about the US train set?

Both GG1, E60, EP-5 and AEM7 (or whatever is it called) are good electric locos

The GG1 is way better than Ae 4/7 and the EP-5 has almost the same parameters as teh Oebb 1042 loco