Where are all the other trains?

[Hoggorm]

I tried my first timetable route today from Tring to Euston, a route I know fairly well from the signaller sim SimSig.

I have really never played TSW before, but I really feel that I am alone on the line. Is there a way to within the game, or via mods, add much, much more traffic?

On the about 40 minute ride from Tring into London Euston I passed noe more than a couple of goods trains and perhaps two-three other trains on the slow lines. No trains passed on the fast up or down lines and this is highly unrealistic...

[Yerolo]

In the case of WCMLS; the reason this route feels so dead out of the box is not so much the layering but the timetable. DTG really dropped the ball on release and they did improve the timetable somewhat with help from Fawx (who created the timetable mod I linked above)

The "problem" is the wcmls timetable mod has its own DLC (and mod) requirements but if you're able to get everything I listed...it is simply *chef's kiss* amazing and there is ALOT of traffic. My favourite runs on this route with all the layers/mods is the Class 710 along the DC line with all the constant traffic rushing past.

I don't know how close it is to reality fully modded, but its a huge improvement over DTGs version (even after their update)

The primary reason London-Brighton; aka London Commuter was so good out of the box was simply due to it's timetable and the amount of work Joe ('Joethefish' on the dtg forums) put into it

[2martens]

I completely understand the point of more train traffic with just one DLC. London Commuter, however, was just two trains in the DLC but the route was such that these two trains provided a vast majority of all services. In the German routes, we have a much higher variety of rolling stock. With the same amount of trains included in a DLC, you just can't fill as many of the services.

Every new train is a lot of work. That's why most DLCs only include one new train and maybe bundle existing trains as well with some touchups.

The timetables themselves are also a beast of work. Especially, if you add a huge variety of services. And all that requires testing.

That is to say: it isn't very easy to fulfill the wishes of the quantity (number of services in timetable) and quality (trains with many features and good overall quality) together with a very tight budget.

If you're interested in a busier timetable for Cologne Aachen, I can suggest my timetable: https://www.trainsimcommunity.com/mods/c3-train-sim-world/c111-timetables/i4387-cologne-aachen-timetable-2023-version-15

It does require many DLC to activate all layers but is also way busier than the original ones from DTG. The work on that timetable started in fall 2023 for me and end of 2024 I got it to a fairly finished state. I'm still making minor adjustments to it.