After spending the evening (and some of the morning) fighting OMSI - I've managed to clear out the old design of the lag-inducing Tweenaway Cross. It seems I've saturated OMSI, having refurbished the scenery on these tiles five times now (first incarnation was back in 2012...), and it was just generating incessant errors. Having overcome that, I've cleared away the scenery in order to make room to upgrade the dual carriageway that runs up to the P&R site into a proper, grade-separated NSL dual carriageway. Finally, some proper use for the Caetano Levante.
As you may be able to see - the junction will be turned into a
Diamond interchange - this makes a change from the old crossroads design seen in v2.9 (which involved a LOT of objects and splines, which caused long tile load times and low FPS), and from the grade-seperated
Roundabout Interchange from the WIP streams you may have seen. Unfortunately, the roundabout design wouldn't have fitted into the space or meet the criteria demanded by this road, so we've gone for this design which is a lot lighter on system resources and is more elegant. Don't worry - crossroads and roundabout interchanges will undoubtedly feature elsewhere in the map.
You can see in the above image, a bus depot sat to the left of the dual carriageway. Many of you may have already seen this from the development streams - but don't worry, the upgraded road will fit around this - I have no intention of it being deleted after the effort I've put into it. You can see that I've made a start clearing the scenery from around the road.
The roundabout you can see in this image will go, as well, with this now being a proper high speed road. The road that joins it will cross the dual carriageway via an underpass - which will then connect to the train station you see on the right of the image. This will eventually form the terminus for the Paignton town route we have planned. It'll go from here to Paignton town centre via a new residential area - where the depot in v2.9 is currently sited.
So where will this dual carriageway lead?
It will be extended out of the map some way - past the current P&R site, to provide at least a few minutes worth of high speed running for the Levante. Along this will be an updated P&R site, with a design to be confirmed. At the end of the dual carriageway will sit a small regional airport. Every other P&R service will run on to the airport. There are no plans for a specific branded airport route. This line will likely be a limited-stop service, calling at (Airport), P&R, Hospital, Paignton railway station then use the fastest route to Paignton Bus Station.
What will happen to the zoo?
Because it would put the map out of balance having 3 major attractions on the same road - the zoo will be repurposed and moved. If you've watched the development streams, you will know it initially moved from its current location in v2.9 to near the P&R site in v3. The zoo will be made bigger, fancier, and will live along the 35 route, most likely by Blagdon village. We have something special planned for the zoo, which we hope you will enjoy - but for now, it is a secret
Now, onto the subject of depots.
Paignton depot needs to be expanded due to limited space at the current depot (i.e. where it is now in v3, next to the rail line). Therefore, NBC Devon has acquired the scrubland on the opposite side of the rail line to the main Paignton depot. A bespoke, modern depot will be constructed there, greatly expanding the capacity in Paignton. The cost for this will be offset slightly by closing down the Paignton town garage - rent and operating costs are quite high for this prime seafront location, and noise abadement was prohibiting early morning/late night movements.
The Totnes outbase, seen above in a run-down state, will continue to operate. Low demand for buses at this site has resulted in stricter budgets for this site, but due to a new contract, extra buses are needed, so it will be kept on, but there is only money for minimal improvements. A local coach operator now rents 3 spaces for vehicle, up from 1 earlier this year.
The depots will receive detailing from Whistlehead - with accurate signage, markings, layout and fittings. The small Totnes outbase you see above is in a first-draft state. It is located at the back of a small trading estate - which is wedged between a supermarket and the River Dart.
Now, moving on... on the Totnes side of the map - the 525 route is beginning to take shape. A previously-unused spur of road which extends from the north of the map will be utilized. It will be extended slightly, to serve a rural shopping complex resembling Trago Mills Newton Abbot (
http://www.exploredevonapp.com/media.ashx/trago-newton-abbot-view-over-haytorw_870_489.jpg). It will run from that, along the spur, to a new supermarket on the north edge of Totnes:
It will then cross this new roundabout:
The 525 then goes into Totnes, and exits, following a back-country route, eventually ending along the coast from Paignton, at Brixham.
So, what about the rest of the route?
We've already had a brief look at the P&R route and the 525. The 35 will remain largely the same (although it will have a route variant providing a limited-stop service), but will use the main roads to cross Totnes, calling at a new college, rather than using the back streets.
There will be a new seaside route, which goes to Brixham (Estuarytown, for those who watch the development streams). However, no framework for this has been laid. And finally, as mentioned before, there will be a Paignton town route which goes from the bus station, up to the train station by the dual carriageway via the residential area.
This gives 5 routes plus one route variant in total.
There will also be the secret feature at the zoo, in addition to another secret feature located north of Totnes.
There will be more updates soon - but in the meantime, why not follow the UKDT Twitch channel? Tune into www.twitch.tv/ukdt for regular development streams.