The Coach Is Still Missing – But Its Stations Are Already Here: How ETS2 Is Preparing for Coaches!

The preparations are particularly noticeable in Nuremberg. There, SCS has implemented a new bus station while also adapting parts of the surrounding area. For regular truck drives, this area is initially little more than another part of the city. Its actual purpose, however, concerns coaches: As soon as Coaches becomes playable, stations like these are intended to become starting points, intermediate stops and destinations for passenger jobs.

This makes the preparations significantly different from simply adding a new vehicle. If SCS merely put a coach into ETS2, there would still be no functioning bus operation for a long time. Passengers need fixed stops, a coach must be able to approach the station sensibly, and long vehicles must also fit through the entrances and exits. That is why Coaches is already changing the map itself.

Nuremberg is not alone. The bus stations in Karlstad, Aarhus and Thessaloniki have also been adapted for later coach operations. Depending on the location, this affects the building, signage, access roads or the layout around the station. In Heraklion a previously inaccessible road was even opened so that the corresponding bus station could be reached sensibly.

Such changes initially seem minor during normal truck driving, but they are crucial for a coach. Although a truck and a coach both need plenty of space, they do not necessarily travel to the same places in the game. Trucks go to companies, depots, ports or logistics centers. Coaches, on the other hand, have to enter the middle of cities, approach bus stations and stop as precisely as possible at designated stops.

SCS therefore also has to make adjustments at border crossings. Certain facilities were originally built mainly for truck traffic. Coaches sometimes require different routes and navigation that recognizes which vehicle you are traveling in. For precisely this purpose, ETS2 is now preparing vehicle-specific route guidance . At some border crossings, previously blocked areas have also been opened or layouts adapted.

A good example of this is also Kapıkule on the Turkish-Bulgarian border, whose area has been expanded. Large border facilities like these in particular show that Coaches will have effects beyond individual cities. A future international bus connection will have to be guided through the border just like a truck – but via the lanes and inspection areas intended for coaches.

The effort behind this is greater than one might initially think. Numerous bus stations have existed on the ETS2 map for years. However, many of them were originally built merely as scenery for the game world. They never actually had to be approached by a player vehicle. That is exactly what changes with Coaches.

SCS had already explained that more than 100 bus station locations are present on the European map. A large part of them is based on older prefabricated facilities. For coach operations, it is therefore not enough simply to place a marker on these buildings. Several of these bus station types are being revised so that vehicles can actually drive in, stop there and then drive out again.

This creates interesting places that are already in the game today, even though their actual function is still missing. For example, anyone driving past the new Nuremberg bus station in a truck is, in a sense, seeing part of a future game system. The location is complete enough to exist on the map – passengers, coach jobs and your own coach will only arrive with the DLC.

That is precisely why you should not confuse Update 1.61 with Coaches. The map preparations are already part of regular ETS2. However, that does not mean that the Coaches DLC has been released with it. Coaches, passenger jobs and the associated career remain part of the upcoming expansion.

What will be particularly interesting is how noticeable these changes will become once you actually drive a coach. In a truck, you may barely notice a bus station. With a coach, the same place suddenly becomes the center of a job: maneuvering inside, picking up passengers, keeping to the schedule and then continuing to the next station.

In the long term, Coaches will therefore change more than just the vehicle selection in Euro Truck Simulator 2. The existing European map is gaining a second layer of use. Places that have so far been of little importance to truck drivers can become important points for coaches.

And that is already visible today: The coach itself is still missing – but its world has long been taking shape.

Have you already discovered the new bus station in Nuremberg? And which city would you want to drive to first with a coach?