Hello All Train Dispatchers,

Great news for all rail network enthusiasts – Update 17 has officially pulled into the station! It’s crammed with enhancements that will redefine how you manage your railways. But before we dive into the buffet of new features, take a moment to join our Discord community. It’s the perfect place to chat with fellow members and the devs, share your insights, and maybe pick up a few pro tips along the way!

Now, let’s get to the good stuff.

Shunting: The New Era of Train Control

Shunting is not just moving trains around anymore; it’s about smart automation and precision. Queue shunting commands and watch your trains follow orders flawlessly with the help of the newly introduced shunting circuit. This innovative feature breathes new life into your control strategies.

To understand how this elevates your gameplay, let’s delve into the mechanics: When a train with any shunting command queued approaches an auto signal with a shunting circuit attached, the system kicks into high gear. The first command in the queue is executed with pinpoint accuracy—whether it’s routing to another signal, stabling into a designated tracks group, or making its way back to the platform to prepare for the next leg of its journey. And this is just the beginning. With the next update, we’re gearing up to expand the list of commands even further, including the ability to attach or detach locomotives, enhancing your control and customization options even more.

Multi-leg (Regional) Trains Automation

With the hustle and bustle of your growing network, platform space is gold. Update 17 allows you to automate the intermissions of regional trains more effectively, “shunting” them to stabling areas to keep your network flowing smoothly.

Shunting Track

The update introduces Shunting Track Groups, a practical tool for organizing your rail yard. You can now group several tracks together into what is known as a ‘Stabling Group.’ With this feature, you can issue a shunting command for a train to move directly to one of these groups, which optimizes train dispatching and yard management, making your rail operations more efficient.

Stabling Sensor

The Stabling Sensor allows for automatic command execution for trains that finish their leg at sensor-equipped platforms. Set up commands to manage end-of-line procedures, ensuring trains are directed to the correct facilities or prepared for their next service without manual intervention.

Improved Contracts Planning

Your operational clarity just got a significant boost! The overhaul in contract planning now displays every stop in a train’s journey, enriching your station timelines and simplifying routing sensor configurations.

All Stations Inclusion

The updated system now includes all stations on the train’s path within the schedule, granting you visibility of your train at every station it traverses. This comprehensive overview ensures that no part of your network is left unchecked and enhances your ability to monitor and manage the station platforms.

Add/Remove Waypoint

With the ability to add or remove waypoints in your train’s schedule, you’re given complete control over the route configuration. Each modification automatically recalculates the route and adjusts the rewards, providing a dynamic and responsive planning experience that adapts to your strategic changes.

Building Made Better

The build menu has received a facelift. Enjoy an enhanced, neatly categorized bar that promises a more organized and accessible construction process.

A Clear View of Offered Contracts

Keep an eye on potential business with the new Offered Contracts panel, conveniently located for easy access and better decision-making.

Streamlined Sensor Configuration

Configuring sensors is now an integral part of your layout planning. This direct approach is set to minimize confusion and enhance your dispatching flow.

Music to Your Ears – Or Not

Need to focus? The new music configuration option mutes all game music when Rail Route is not the active window. Stay in control, even when you’re multitasking!

We hope you’re as excited about these updates as we are. For a deep dive into the new features, join our community on Discord and let us know how these changes are shaping your Rail Route experience. See you next week for more behind-the-scenes insights!

Until next time, keep the switches switching and the locomotives rolling!

Full Changelog

Notable Additions

• A hint in the station configuration view about not getting red contracts for stations that are without a dispatcher office
• Added hint for changes to trial contracts
• Added offered contracts panel
• Arrival sensor configuration view
• Build dispatcher office narration hint on unlocking a red contracts upgrade
• Coach Yard can dispatch individual trains as ECS
• Departure sensor configuration view
• Full schedule! All stations en route included in trial train schedule
• Full schedule; Add & Remove waypoint actions to set up own route
• Full schedule; Finished trial train indicates delayed / faster run to schedule & requests schedule modification
• Full schedule; Trial train departs at scheduled time or after ShorterPossibleStop & commuter trial trains stop at scheduled stations only as the schedule is pre-configured
• Particle effects when build bar is opened
• Reuse icon in the regional train label when it is waiting for next leg train
• Routing sensor configuration view
• Shunting Track building added to facilitate assigning tracks to Shunting Group; target of ‘Go to Shunting Group’ shunting command.
• Shunting commands introduced to control stabling of regional trains and turning the locomotive around the train
• Shunting commands mini tutorial
• Shunting commands upgrade & Shunting Circuit building item
• Shunting queue displayed in focus view with shunting commands placed in front of signals they command the train to
• Stabling Sensor building added to facilitate automated assigning of shunting commands to trains requiring shunting (e. g. Reg trains during their intermissions)
• Stabling sensor mini tutorial
• The game mutes audio when not in focus

Notable Updates

• AcceptContractTask now have a subtask to adjust the Bubny’s station visit’s platform
• All core Endless maps updated to be more open (part 1)
• Background color of some buttons and checkbox made brighter for better visibility
• Better animation at the start of offered / active contracts views
• Building buttons on bottom bar for recently installed upgrades show animation when first shown
• Building item texts refined
• Changed building bottom bar visuals
• Coach Yard Automation upgrade discarded. Coach yards are capable of automation once built.
• Coach Yard price increased to 50000 + upkeep of 5000 per cycle introduced; it is an end-game building
• Coach Yard stables instances of trains, not only counters. Reg train is always dispatched from CY where previous leg was stabled.
• Configuration ‘Paste all’ button now copies configuration of currently edited sensor to neighbours instead of config in clipboard
• Contract connector bends over autoblocks or tunnels en route instead of short-cutting them
• Currently edited train has different color in Station Timeline
• Currently edited train shown on board in contract configuration and shunting focus views
• Improved visuals for checkbox hover states
• Improved visuals for toggle button hover states
• Improved visuals of station visit panels in contract planning
• Increased size of small buttons
• Increased targeted framerate for slow loading operations
• Localizations (ja-JP: tutorials, ui; nl: research, tutorials, ui; no: research, tutorials, ui; zh-Hans: research, tutorials, ui)
• Money not refunded when item grabbed and not charged when rebuilt. Refunded only when rebuild is not possible.
• Music intensity is rewarding players that do not switch time or pause
• Overlapping visits in the station info panel timeline are now marked to indicate a conflict
• Renamed some columns on active contracts panel and replaced train type text with icon
• Right mouse can be used in Focus Views to move the map without closing the view
• Selected Train is shown in Contract configuration Views
• Sensors mini tutorials have been updated to use the new sensor configuration focus view
• Stabling Sensor triggers also for Com and IC trains ending in Coach Yard
• Station Info Panels that were deliberately opened in focus view will be closed with the focus view once it get closed
• Traffic types (Through and Oneway) renamed to just ‘Green’ and ‘Red’
• Train in intermission timeline: 2nd station of next leg displayed for easier decisions
• Trial train failed narration has been updated
• Updated hints modal to be fullscreen panel in new UI style

Notable Fixes

• Build buttons without editable inventory amount where not shown inline with other buttons
• Build mode could not be opened in timetable maps with inventory enabled
• Build mode is not closeable at the beginning of the tutorial
• Buttons on station info panels in contract adjustment focus view moved up when hovered
• Contract connector & topology search allowed orthogonal connection to autoblocks without signals
• Departure sensors that were saved with null connection using the old configuration method were not configurable
• Filtering stations list in editor while in platform placing mode resulted in broken platform placing
• First train chapter in the tutorial was failing if the time was paused before 08:00 in the previous chapter
• If the mouse was at a ui item and you clicked something on the keyboard, the mouse clicks were not working until you move the mouse a bit
• Jozic says gain 5 green points in for the auto accept trains upgrade while it actually costs only 3 points
• Keybind without dedicated icons fallback text sometimes contained “Press”
• Map item animation kept repeating when hovering mouse near edge of map
• Middle click were opening configurations where moving map
• Modals during story and upgrade tutorials did not hide other UI and menu button bindings would still trigger
• Open focus view subtasks in the tutorials could be fulfilled by opening the wrong focus view
• Opening the options menu for the first time lagged the game
• Performance issues in contracts panel
• Red and Green system upgrades menu pages where not lined up on the same position
• Regional trial trains were not auto-dispatched from Coach Yard
• Score panel is not being hidden once a victory screen is shown in the timetable
• Sending the train in the run trial train task out of the map led to a narration to be played twice
• Sensors were buildable at the autoblocks’ end points
• Small track pieces where barely or completely invisible when highlighted as routing destinations
• Smart formatting was not applied in some places.
• Story prompt to play wakefield map didnt hide UI to focus on prompt and menu button bindings could still be activated
• Switch was not reset to track after the track was extended
• System upgrade menu button remained highlighted when closing upgrades menu in editor
• System upgrade menu did not open in editor when level was timetable mode
• The subtask done marks on the board overlap with the train label and with each other
• Tier unlocked popup referred to ‘green’ even if red tier was unlocked in languages with different pluralization to English
• Time speed was capped to last time speed value even if previous value had higher value
• Tool tip of the system upgrade button “Install first” does not actually says what should be installed first
• Tooltips where being hidden whenever some component that also has a tooltip was destroyed
• Train types in CY were hidden according to first loaded map / save after game start
• Urban train was not able to enter CY before accepting or rejecting contract condition

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