After playing TRS22 during the beta period I can say that TRS22 is more stable than what TRS19 is.
I feel like performance has been improved slightly more than what the performance in TRS19 is currently. The base game without any of the DLCs installed offers enough to get started and there are several other user-made content available either on the DLS or on 3rd party websites.
Here is my scenario: In the past with TRS19 I had the game crash on me during route development and it didn’t always save my progress, so a lot of work was lost. In TRS22 I also had the game crash on me but unlike TRS19 it has saved my work to the point the game crashed so I was able to recover my route and perform a manual save.
For those that complain about the DLCs…. Unlike Railworks / TSW / TSW2 they are ALL optional to be able to use content created by the players for the game. If you see something, then pick it up else don’t buy it. All the DLCs are created by community members like me. Railworks DLCs are mandatory to be able to use content created by other players.
I will agree, the DLS free access speeds that I keep hearing should be updated now since content files are getting larger in size rather than being small like in the 2000 era. However, a 1 year First Class Ticket for $36 isn’t bad as most services for one year average $100.

Overall, I think TRS22 is going to be good if not great :D
If you are on the fence of upgrading to either TANE, TRS19, or TRS22, I would suggest going with TRS22.

First off, let me point out (as you can see in my stats), that I have played this game almost 2,000 hours since release. Yes, 2,000 hours in a handful of months. So I have been exposed to it all at this point. Overall, this game is absolutely amazing, mesmerizingly fun, and I do recommend it. The positives outweigh the negatives in my view, though there is still a lot to be improved upon.

This is the first train simulator I have played since the original Microsoft Train Simulator many years ago. I don't know anything about TrainWorks, Train Sim World, or other competitors other than the reviews I've read here on Steam. This is mainly because this is the only AAA train simulator that runs on Mac. (A HUGE thank you to the developers for making this game compatible on Mac!)

The positive:
• Compared to other simulation games, it is rather intuitive. Don't get me wrong, there is still A LOT to figure out and learn, but it isn't nearly as overwhelming or frustrating as it could be.
• The graphics are beautiful. Even on an M1 MacBook Air without some extremely expensive, fancy graphics card, the game still looks great and runs smoothly on medium settings.
• The amount of content included in the base game is fair for the price and the amount of free downloadable content you have access to is incredible. There is also a good selection of high-quality, paid DLC.
• The route builder (Surveyor as they call it) gives you access to completely customize (or build from scratch) a route to your liking. It is so much fun and incredibly rewarding. In-fact, I spend more time in Surveyor than I do actually playing/driving.
• Upgrades from previous Trainz versions: Shortly before purchasing TS2022, I purchased TS2019. Mainly because so many reviews said nothing much had changed, to save your money and purchase the less-expensive 2019 version. I can attest that it is true, not much has changed. Even the routes included with the latest version are mostly the same. However, there are some key changes that make it very much worthwhile to upgrade/purchase TS2022 instead. The most prominent one is what they call UDS (Unified Driver/Surveyor). In TS2019, you have to load up Surveyor, make any changes you want, save it, exit out of it, and then load up Driver to play/drive the route. In TS2022, you can instantaneously switch between editing the route (Surveyor) and playing/driving in the route (Driver). Let me tell you, the amount of time and hassle this saves is alone worth purchasing TS2022.

The negative:
• Because almost all of this game's content is produced not by the developers but by your average joe, the quality can vary wildly. The developers do quality control and verification on the built-in routes and any paid-DLCs so no worries there, but anything you get from the download station is an unknown. There is a small thumbnail that accompanies most content in the download station, but for the most part, you'll have no idea if you like something or not until you use it in-game. So, this positive of so much free downloadable content can also be a negative. In my opinion, it wouldn't be so bad if there was an easy way to uninstall unwanted content, but there is not. There is no option in-game to delete content. Instead, you have to make a list of anything you do not want, attempt to find it in the download station one-by-one and delete from there, but not before checking to see if any of that content is a dependency in any routes you have installed or created. It is a tedious process and unnecessarily so when the developers could allow you to delete content in-game and give a warning message if any content you are about to delete is needed.
• There is barely any guidance. You have to be ready for a lot of personal research and trial-and-error. While some of this can be a good thing, there are many times I wished there would have been more detailed instructions provided in-game. For example, you want to set up your own grade crossing? You have to figure it out 100% on your own--by looking at how other routes are setup, by researching guides online, etc.. There are some built-in tutorials you can run through for certain situations you will face while playing/driving (Driver as they call it), but even these are sparse. There are a ton of options in Surveyor and available Driver Commands (basically certain rules you can set up), but figuring it all out is a chore. I still don't know how to implement some Drive Commands correctly after 2,000 hours of playing.
• Going along with my last point, Trainz themselves does not have a fully dedicated help/support site. The Trainz help section that is found on their website is information provided by users, not by Trainz developers/staff. While it can still be very useful, I personally feel that a company publishing a game like this should provide detailed, help articles by the people who made the game themselves. (In the spirit of full disclosure, Trainz does have a small support section written by staff and an available HelpDesk, but they only provide information on/support for orders, downloading, installation, and access.)
• Still connected to my last point: The Trainz official website. Man, it is all over the place. It can be difficult to navigate. There are about three different "styles" of the site, depending on which section you are in. There are still a ton of pages that refer to TS2019 (or earlier) as the latest version. There is a "store" to buy content and subscriptions on the website, on Steam, and within the game itself. There is a "download station" on the website and in the game itself. By the way, the free content and paid content have to be accessed in different "stores". How do you keep it all straight or know which to use? Good luck. I personally like clean, standardized, professional, and discernible and that is what I expect from a game-development (or any other) company. You don't exactly get that.
• When using the download station, your downloads are limited to 10 kbps. Yes, you read that correctly. That is less than 1/5th the speed of dial-up. Yes, you read that correctly too. Trainz offers a subscription called a "First Class Ticket" to receive faster download speeds. I completely understand offering a paid tier, but throttling users without a subscription to a speed that slow is insane. Is this the 1990s? I hate when companies use tactics that force a user into paying more. It is unethical, unprofessional, and borderline criminal.
• Speaking of subscriptions, Trainz offers a subscription to Trainz Plus. This is a separate version of TS2022 that includes the "latest" features along with other perks like accessing the paid-DLCs at no additional cost (perks depend on the tier of subscription you purchase). The most prominent perk/feature to me is Surveyor 2.0, a redesigned route builder with more options. This may be in the "positive" column for some, but for me personally, I like to purchase things to own, not perpetually rent something while never actually owning it. Not to mention, because Trainz Plus is a separate "game", you have to go through the tedious process of trying to port your existing data from your current Trainz version into Trainz Plus. If they offered the new Surveyor as a one-time purchase, I would gladly shell out money to buy it.
• The game crashes quite a bit. (From what I understand, it does crash less than TS2019 does.) It crashes enough to where I am constantly paranoid about loosing my work and saving the game a lot more often than I otherwise would. I have lost hours of hard-work before because of a game crash. Upon reboot, the game does offer for you to use the changes you made before the crash; however, in my experience, more often than not, the changes are not up-to-date so I still end up loosing everything since the last save anyway. I am not a software developer, but it seems to me like I would have someone trying to fix the code and therefore fix the incessant crashing.

Pleasing to my severe autism.

Not sure why people dog this franchise so much. The base content alone is enough play to last a lifetime.
Great game guys. Eager for 2.0 tool.

I have to say, Trainz 2022 is actually pretty good.

Pros:
-A decent amount of content in the base game
-5 Routes
-A nice UP GP38-2 which I somehow thought was a GP40-2
-Relaxing Main Menu Music
-Plenty of paid dlc to keep you busy for decades or even longer
-Optional paid subscription that allows you to enjoy all dlc content for free.
-Plenty of paid 3rd party content to keep you busy for a century.
-You can build your own model railroad however you please (the Trainz franchise is a model railroad simulator franchise, not an actual train simulator)
-Most stuff is of very nice quality.
-Performance is, for the most part, great, even if you have a mid PC.
-Dlcs are not overly expensive.
-Most of the dlc routes are really good and of great quality.

Cons:
-Download Station speeds are terrible without a first class ticket. I'll excuse this since the devs are a very small team and not a big company that can throw money into a lot of things, but it's still considered a con.
-Some routes have reused assets.
-Certain features, including upcoming features, are locked behind a subscription paywall when, as with most games, they should be in the base game via free updates. Video game features have no business being locked behind a paywall. These features should be included in free updates. They're functions of a video game, video game functions shouldn't be locked behind a paywall or a subscription. It's like how Microsoft locked Neflix and YouTube behind Xbox Live Gold despite the fact YouTube is free to everyone and Netflix is a subscription service. I know the development team isn't big, but come on N3V Games, this isn't how video games are supposed to work!
-Certain dlc is locked behind a Trainz Plus subscription and cannot be purchased, so if you want to obtain certain dlc content, such as the Budd RDC-1 dlc, Amtrak Superliners dlc, or BR HST dlc, you have to subscribe to Trainz Plus and when your Trainz Plus subscription ends, you lose access to the dlc that you obtained with the subscription. In simple terms, you can't buy and own certain dlc content, you have to subscribe to Trainz Plus to access it. That to me, is absurd since a lot of content for this game is lovely. It's pretty insane to lock dlc behind a subscription. Whatever happened to buying and owning dlc?
-Some dlc assets lack quality.
-It's not too common to have assets break and be unusable, no matter what you do, including dlc assets, but it can and will happen.
-Some issues from older Trainz Games still persist, such as the broken TRC system and broken portals issue that can randomly occur.
-Having too many assets can and will affect the game's performance, though this is more noticeable on low end PCs.
-It's common for a lot of assets to be reskinned and reused. It's not terrible or bad, but it can be depending on the assets.

Now, the negatives may outweigh the pros, but honestly, this game isn't bad or terrible. It has it's flaws and I am thinking about making suggestions as well as planning on getting in contact with N3V Games to see if certain features like the living railroad feature, will be added to the game via an update and a subscription to Trainz Plus won't be necessary to utilize the features.

Review Update (March 12, 2025)

Having close to 1600 hours now invested in Trainz 22 P.E., I do still recommend this game. It does have a lot of quirks, but I have managed to work through them. Though much more improvement needs to occur or Trainz could derail itself into oblivion.

It is a fact that N3V needs to move away from their custom game builder and move towards Unreal 5 (or better). Performance would be greatly improved and honestly Trainz would not fall so far behind their competitors (Derail Valley, Railroader, Railroads Online etc). Night time lighting is still a major issue. Some assets look nice at night (such as Jointed Rail's Smart Searchlight signals), but other things (especially street lighting) offers no real illumination effect compared to other games of this genre I mentioned above.
Performance is still a big issue. When I upgraded my GPU to a Gigabyte Radeon RX 6600 Eagle I noticed the fans run at full speed, because Trainz runs it harder which will build up a lot of heat through the chips. This may ultimately cause premature failure of my GPU (heat stress can cause actual damage of chips and circuits).

Again the hours I have put into this game are very extensive (5 to 14 hours daily) I can still enjoy Trainz 22 P.E. I do hope that the next major release is not a rinse and repeat of the past 10 years.

Trainz Railroad Simulator 2022 Platinum Edition is a really fun train simulator, and there is so much you can do it's amazing. I had no idea this sim has been out 20 years, and has a really amazing community. Many of them create things others can edit, or play.

Why I chose TRS 22 over other train sims:

For a long time (years) I was interested in getting into train simulators, but the ones I found were too arcade based. Do a thing and then it's over. I like deep layers of content in my sim games, and ones like Train Sim World, or the other clones just doesn't cut it for me.

In the case of Run8 (by Run8 Studios) which I'd been considering for months based on videos I had seen, I ended up passing on it. Why? Run8 is not on Steam, the company website is so archaic (circa 2003), buying their products means one thing at a time due to a lack of a proper eCommerce shopping cart system. It's just a nightmare trying to buy things from their store.

There is a lot of free and paid content to choose from: trains; locos; rail cars (aka rolling stock); sessions; routes etc. that Trainz has. While it can get pricey, they do have Steam sales and much is very discounted. They do offer monthy and year subscriptions for other content. It is 100% optional.

World builder Surveyor 2.0.

This tool comes with the Platinum Edition and gives you the ability to build your own playable routes and sessions. Many use S20 to build their dream model railroads and then go drive in them other build worlds that take over an hour to complete. It takes getting used to, but just start small then you'll be a pro at it.

Their are 10 in sim tutorials that I highly recommend going through so you can understand the game mechanics and how to interact with the sim.

In closing Trainz Railroad Simulator Platinum Edition is a stellar sim, and I am glad I chose it! happy railroading!!

SkittleKicks Plays

This is a game which I feel deserves a Meh button
Pros:
More stable than TRS19,
New routes and Locos are good
The driving aspect is smoother than previous versions.
Cons:
DLC's purchased via steam for TRS19 and TANE will work, but are very, VERY Buggy. they appear in Content store under the Steam ID's if you download those versions, but I found certain routes (Particularly the TRS19 Healesville route) to be unplayable due to certain Locos being locked behind the "Packaged (Not Active)" status of doom,
Some of the older routes have tunnel portals floating in mid air and you instead see the dig hole white square abyss that takes you away from the simulation aspect.
Then you get some DLC's that despite them being purchased from TRS19 via steam they do not show up at all, making it seem very Cash-grabby.
And to top it all off, if you do not have a Trainz Plus subscription going at the exact same time, the Download speeds for the free Downloadable content on the DLS are HORRIBLY SLOW (Although they aren't as bad as the TRS19 speeds) and the only way to make the DLS Speeds faster are to Purchase a subscription be it FCT (Only available on the official Trainz Website) or Trainz+
My Recommendation:
For Newcomers to the series, TRS22 is a good entry-level option if you can grab it on a steam sale,
For those already in the Trainz series with TRS19, 22 isn't worth the headache unless you get Platinum or Trainz Plus
But I recommend to go purchase TRS22 via the official Trainz store instead of via steam, as you get better deals, and less headaches that the Valve corporation unintentionally creates.
And to N3V, please fix the bugs on the Steam version! I'm not mad, just wishing you could be better.

Can I just say WOW, N3V games has really made a train simulation to make DTG run for their money. The freeware trains that you can get from 3rd parties is easy to install (Trainz Electro Transport or jointed rail) plus the fast download speeds from the download station are amazing. The graphics are superior compared to other train simulators.
Only downside is the DLC rate but at least they're cheap compared to DTG's DCL spam.

I will definitely live to see the moment when more than one volumetric light source is added to the game. Definitely...
But I must say - they did their homework with editor. Surveyor 2.0 is a great update. I've been playing this game since TRS 2004 so I can tell the difference
If you're prefer creativity to driving - this's worth buying (not at full price ofc xD), but keep in mind that overall difference between trs 19 and trs 22 not that big

Good game, very fun to play.