Savegame download: note that this requires
Simutrans Experimental.
Time to share a new project that I've been slowly working on over the past 6-8 months. This map aims to reimagine the rail network of North America - specifically all of the USA and Canada east of Texas and the Midwest. It's a 6000x5000 map with a scale of around 550 metres per tile. It's still very much in its early stages, as you can see from the progress map below.
The map's extentThe idea is to imagine what the North American railway network might be like if the attitude to and extent of passenger rail networks was more similar to Europe. So there will be lots of rail lines that don't exist in reality (at least any more). Examples so far include lines to Allentown PA and Salisbury MD.
Progress on the map so far, from DC in the south to Boston and Albany in the northAnother diversion from reality is the addition of
high-speed rail. I'm going to add a high-speed network on core routes between major cities, like you might expect to find in parts of Europe and Asia. The max speed on the fastest lines will be 300kph (186mph) which is in line with the fastest high-speed lines in Germany. The only high-speed line so far is between Washington DC, New York, and Boston. It takes 1h13m to get from Washington to Philadelphia, 56 mins from Philadelphia to New York City, and 1h38m from NYC to Boston. It runs once every 20 minutes. Its approximate route is on
this map. This is a dedicated high-speed route for the entire length - that won't be the case for all HS services.
Future high-speed routes will include NYC-Toronto via Albany and Buffalo, and Washington DC to Detroit via Pittsburgh, though I doubt many will have the same high-frequency timetable as the North-East corridor.
Conventional lines through New Brunswick and Perth Amboy, and the high-speed line inbetweenThe base pakset is the same as for the Great Britain map, but I've added some USA-friendly buildings adapted from Pak128. There are only two types of train in service so far: first, one based on the
Class 350 which runs a mixture of suburban and express services on conventional lines (max 100mph). My high-speed train is essentially an adjusted
Pendolino which can run up to 300kph. Everything so far is electrified, but some more minor diesel routes will appear at some point.
Stamford Connecticut, with a mixture of local and express services. The branch to Danbury leaves near Norwalk, and the high-speed line runs in the north of the screenBecause of the 550 metre-per-tile scale, it's not possible to simulate much detail in major cities. So for instance there's only a limited suburban rail network in and around NYC and Boston compared to what you'd expect to be able to run in a city that size. This simplification is ok, because the intercity services are the main focus of this map covering a very large portion of the continent.
Boston (right) and Providence (left), with the surrounding area. Many of these rail lines don't yet have any services.Much more to follow - but do note that my Simutrans time is more limited these days, so substantial updates might not be very frequent!
