Honestly, I think that we’re perhaps cutting the corner a bit. In heavily railed countries in the West like Germany, Belgium, France, Netherlands, … -which is what Urban has taken their vision from I’d assume, what with them being Swiss- Trains are normally assigned a platform in the rl timetables. Example: Antwerp Central – Brussels South | 8:47 | IC | Platform 3. However, there are always going to be unforeseen circumstances.
It’s exactly to brace against those anomalies that control centers can switch trains and platforms when needed, and dynamic information signs can inform passengers on the fly with a minimum of delay. Yes, trains are not 100% bound to a platform, but as seasoned rail travelers can tell you, they do have a platform they’re normally supposed to be at each time. That’s the first thing I’d like to contribute to this thread, and this discussion.
Secondly, there may be a different way to solve this issue than simply waypoints or dynamic platforms. Instead, a ‘block spacing’ could be implemented. One could ask the trains on a route to keep a distance of 1-2 stations or even a distance of a certain amount of (travelling) time. Timetables seem less practical in a game that makes the (un)loading of a train last a month, but it may be possible to add an option to tell trains to keep a distance of say, 1 minute minimum or 2 minutes between each train.
That, plus the fact that the game does already allow you to select a platform via clever use of the signals and signal placing should give us much more control over the system with a minimal need for intervention/modification. It’d just require more usage of the travel time-keeping mechanism.
If we do get control over junctions though (or a timetable-esque solution is implemented), I’d love for it to be an unlockable. Make junctions/waypoints only be controllable in a fixed radius around a signhouse/control center; only allow time-spacing after the construction of a corporate HQ, that kind of thing. It’d really add to the theme of ‘rail transportation evolving over time’, and having signhouses/control centers next to your rails would be a neat realistic touch.
I get that many people want to continue the parallel between this and OTTD, but it isn’t OTTD (and it really isn’t TTD either). There’s stuff you can’t do in TF that is possible in OTTD, but TF does allow for quite a lot that OTTD doesn’t do. Try giving problems an objective attempt to solve rather than lamenting the lack of OTTD’s solution. For example, the signals are getting slammed way harder than they deserve, they do allow for quite a lot of ingenuity already as is.