With the ‘fixed route for a line’ approach of TF this seems to be another thing that can’t be built. I know we might get waypoints, but I don’t want to have to assign a waypoint to every possible overtaking section to move freight to a slow lane, that would be a complete nightmare to manage.

Do the devs know if we’re ever going to get any capability for trains to pick alternate paths to allow these kinds of network features to be built?

Though, I haven’t tried it.

This is my top pet peeve about TF right after the lack of waypoints and the ability to choose platforms.

But I believe (hope) that we will gradually see improvements added to the path-system:

1. waypoints (e.g. platform choosing, track bundel usage,…)
2. alternative paths (eg stations, overtaking,…)
3. elaborated signaling system (block signals, entry and exit signals,..)

Although I think it is not essential for enjoyable gameplay, it will be nice to have these extra options.

blue arrow is the slow train, the red/yellow arrow is the fast train and the yellow squares are signals.

Assuming there is enough time, the fast train should be able to go onto the top section of track?

You might need to adjust the placement of the signals, am not 100% sure, but I would expect it to work.

No?

*Edit – I broke the photo/thumbnail somehow… There should be a second “arrow” (indicating the fast train) off the right side of the pic.

We’ll have to be patient for the developers to have the time to put some effort in it. Until then we need to live the fixed paths.

It’s all the same 20 minute agent.

That’s true, and it’s actually rather perverse. You have industries sitting on the map doing nothing but waiting to be hooked up to customers, but if you give them a line that’s too long they’ll stubbornly sit there at zero production. Who owns those businesses that are sitting there doing nothing?

On the other hand, sometimes you have symbiotic industries that just happen to be sitting next to each other so your map will show that a forest just happens to be supplying a sawmill which is sending goods to a nearby town. In these circumstances it’s very difficult to ‘capture’ these goods onto a line to another town because the industry naturally prefers the shorter road route to the local town – only by putting enough trains on the line to reduce frequency can you compete, and even then if the line is short enough that the travel time is low.

I suspect that once a town’s demand is satisfied the industry will upgrade if you’ve made other demand sinks available via lines, but that takes a significant amount of time during which your line and trains are sitting there costing money with nothing to carry. The game needs a system where industries can indicate that they would like to have a line to a particular destination to give you a clue as to where there is demand to satisfy.

What about leaving off the signal of the fast track?

The slow train reserves the path to its signal, the following fast train is waiting at a previous signal until the slow train enters the bottom track. Then the fast train will reserverve a possible route to the next signal/station behind the double track area and the slow train waits at its signal.

I haven’t tried it out but I will do.

If you want I can post a picture to illustrate what I wanted do explain.