Dispatching questions.

[Bluu]

So I just picked up dispatching and I'm really enjoying it but have a few unanswered questions about it and haven't found answers anywhere so far. In the timetable when a train has a "layover" of a specific amount does that mean I need to have them wait at the station for that amount of time? What does the PT and PH stop types mean? I know the game tries to specify what track and/or platform the train wants to stop at but does that matter all that much? That's it for my questions thanks for the help already.

[RWag64]

- For "Layover" time, if it's a passenger train, yes, you have to retain the train until it's scheduled departure time. For a freight train, you can (or not) authorize the train to depart sooner. It's your decision (speak about it with your neighbourg's dispatchers, if they can receive it).
- "PT" is Technical Stop (for freight trains), not mandatory.
- "PH" is Passenger Stop, mandatory for Passenger trains.
- You can put any train on any platform on the same station (not mandatory to use the platform/track specified in the timetable).

[Bluu]

Originally posted by RWag64:

- For "Layover" time, if it's a passenger train, yes, you have to retain the train until it's scheduled departure time. For a freight train, you can (or not) authorize the train to depart sooner. It's your decision (speak about it with your neighbourg's dispatchers, if they can receive it).
- "PT" is Technical Stop (for freight trains), not mandatory.
- "PH" is Passenger Stop, mandatory for Passenger trains.
- You can put any train on any platform on the same station (not mandatory to use the platform/track specified in the timetable).

Alright thanks for the clarification of the stops especially.

[the810]

Passenger trains can also have a technical stop (PT). Passenger trains with TP stop can also be dispatched early.

TP is generally used to allow overtaking by a higher priority train, therefore it's a good idea to stick to the times in the timetable, otherwise you'll create a mess down the line (I've had this happen today, trailing a slow freight train with a Pendolino, because the freight was going early - and consequently caused me a delay).

Pretty much the only good reason to ignore TP is if the overtaking train is running late (or early!). In that situation it's of course better to do the overtaking somewhere else once the late train catches up with a train that it's supposed to overtake, rather than causing a delay to the slow train too.