Are the timetables realistic?

[CaptainSMan]

I've driven a few routes now and often I'm struggling to keep to the timetable, ok I figure I'm not experienced and have messed up here and there, but I just drove a route I thought was driven fairly well, and on some sections without stops in order to try make up time I went over the speed limit consistently but fell even more behind schedule.

Are the schedules realistically achievable, do you have to drive like an AI or do I  need to go back to driver school?

[jeroezie]

10 hours ago, CaptainSMan said:

I've driven a few routes now and often I'm struggling to keep to the timetable, ok I figure I'm not experienced and have messed up here and there, but I just drove a route I thought was driven fairly well, and on some sections without stops in order to try make up time I went over the speed limit consistently but fell even more behind schedule.

Are the schedules realistically achievable, do you have to drive like an AI or do I  need to go back to driver school?

Its not you, the timetables are very strickt for the passenger trains.

[T_cave]

11 hours ago, CaptainSMan said:

I've driven a few routes now and often I'm struggling to keep to the timetable, ok I figure I'm not experienced and have messed up here and there, but I just drove a route I thought was driven fairly well, and on some sections without stops in order to try make up time I went over the speed limit consistently but fell even more behind schedule.

Are the schedules realistically achievable, do you have to drive like an AI or do I  need to go back to driver school?

In my experiance most of the MP timetables are achievable without speeding, as long as the dispatchers are cooperating.

If the dispatchers send you over a slower route, or over a slower switch it can already cause a few minutes delay in some sections.

There are also a few mistakes in the timetable, and the bot dispatchers aren't always helpfull (understatement of the year).

But as long as dispatch doesn't make a mess, you can be on time on most services, but as @jeroezie said, especially on some passenger trains the timetable is very tight and you really can't hang about. You almost have to drive like a maniac to be on time everywhere.

[Pospec76502]

My two cents... Bots are way too perfect drivers. They should make some random mistakes as we humans do.

There is no legal room for improvement when your train is delayed, the best you can do is to keep the delay.

Most of drivers (all bots) just ignore neutral sections which is borderline cheating for me. And remember, long neutral section on uphill track can easily make up some time which you can't compensate in any way.

It's long time ago when I gave up on being punctual, I'm only trying to do my best without stressing about delays.

[Mr Murphy]

There are problematic services, lot of them. For example Pendolino ones from Katowice to Warszawa (Gdansk). 7 min. driving time (or was it even 6) from Katowice to Sosnowiec is impossible. I have been always late. And true - most of players and AI doesn't care about neutral sections. Even achivement system doesn't care. Some neutral sections are incorrectly marked (they lack start or end sign). Also I doubt not all of them are in right place. For example it's absurdic if placed in front of signals (where train often stops and has to accelerate again - how to accelerate without power?). IC trains are mostly late because of wrong (slower than driving characteristics require) locomotives used. That's because 160 km/h capable IC locos/EMU-s are still missing. The same about many commuter services where EN57/EN71 with top speed limited to 110 km/h can't do the job. But new EMU is coming soon.

Edited 8 hours ago by Mr Murphy