Ongakukan announced the release date of the next DLC for JR East Train Simulator, the 209-500 Series train.
It’ll launch on Steam on Tuesday, March 24.
While many line DLCs have been released so far, those focusing exclusively on trains are rare, and this is the third since the release of the original simulator in 2022.
The 209-500 series is actually a rare train, with only 170 vehicles ever manufactured since 1998. Only 98 (12 sets in total) remain in service today.
Below you can find a few screenshots of the DLC.
The DLC will include the following. It will not include any new timelines.
- Delivered Vehicles: 209-500 Series
- Supported Routes:
- Keihin-Tōhoku/Negishi Line (Ōmiya → Ōfuna: 81.2 km) ※Basic Pack
- Keiyō Line (Soga → Tokyo: 43.0 km)
- Chūō/Sōbu Local Line (Chiba → Mitaka: 60.2 km)
Incidentally, at the same time as the DLC, the simulator will also receive an update, including the following:
- 【Keiyō Line】
- ・Added driver call phrases
- 【Chūō/Sōbu Local Line】
- ・Fixed an issue where the emergency brake light was illuminated while traveling between Yotsuya Station and Shinanomachi Station.
- ・Fixed a bug where the number of trips and trip history were not being recorded
- 【Yokohama Line】
- ・Fixed an issue where some announcements were not played after the train departed from Higashi-Kanagawa Station on the 1005K service
- 【E231 Series（Suburban Type and 500 subseries）】
- ・Fixed the behavior when zooming in on the driver’s cab
- 【185 Series】
- ・Fix the sound when releasing the brakes
If you’re unfamiliar with JR East Train Simulator, it’s available for PC via Steam and comes with a massive range of DLC simulating plenty of different trains and lines around Tokyo and Eastern Japan.
While it’s certainly a niche sim compared to more global franchises like Train Sim World 6, it enjoys “mostly positive” reviews (with “very positive” recent ones), and it has a dedicated fanbase. Incidentally, it was developed by Ongakukan, one of the pioneers of the train simulation genre with the Train Simulator franchise that debuted all the way back in 1995.
Just a few months ago, JR East (the actual railway operator in the real world), which also publishes the game officially, announced an official and blindingly expensive controller unit for the most professional (or nerdy) of the simulator’s fans.
