Euro Truck Simulator 2 Coaches: Buses get their own lanes at border crossings!

Update 1.61 for Euro Truck Simulator 2 has been released for several days now. Alongside Proximity Exploration, the revamped livestock trailer and several visual improvements, it also contains a series of map changes explicitly prepared for the upcoming Coaches DLC.

Some of them concern cities and bus stations, while another part is much less conspicuous: Border crossings on the existing ETS2 map have been adapted so that coaches can be guided through them correctly later on.

The reason for this is fairly simple. In terms of gameplay, a coach is not simply a truck with a different body. At real border crossings, different lanes, control areas and access roads exist depending on the type of vehicle. For example, a truck does not necessarily have to take the same route through a border complex as a coach carrying passengers.

This is precisely the problem SCS had to solve on the existing ETS2 map. Many border crossings were originally built exclusively for classic truck gameplay. As a result, some areas were not accessible to players at all, while other routes were simply not provided for by the navigation system.

With Update 1.61, SCS therefore opened parts of existing border facilities, which could not previously be driven through. These areas are intended to be usable by coaches later on when their correct route does not run through the previous truck lanes.

Even more important, however, is navigation. For these situations, SCS has introduced vehicle-specific route guidance . This allows the navigation system to take into account whether you are travelling in a truck or, in future, in a coach.

At first, this sounds like a small technical change, but it is quite crucial. If the satnav always used the same route for both vehicle types, it could send a coach through an area intended only for trucks – or vice versa.

In addition, minor layout changes have been made at various border crossings. The aim is not to rebuild all border facilities completely. Instead, SCS is adapting existing lanes, access roads and connections so that coaches can be guided through the areas intended for them.

SCS has not yet published a complete separate list of exactly which individual border crossings have been changed. Therefore, one should not assume that every border in Europe has automatically been completely rebuilt.

The only certainty is that several border crossings distributed across the map have received corresponding changes and that SCS describes this work specifically as part of the Coaches preparation.

At the same time, the changes show how deeply the Coaches project now affects the existing ETS2 world. It is not enough simply to add a MAN Lion's Coach or another coach to the game and continue using the existing truck map unchanged.

Bus stations must become accessible, some roads need new access routes, and even the navigation system must understand that different vehicle types can use different routes.

Border crossings add another aspect: coaches transport passengers. This means the situation fundamentally differs from classic freight transport. However, SCS has not yet fully described which specific control procedures will later be simulated in gameplay.

For this reason, one should not currently read into this that players will have to carry out individual passenger checks, document inspections or similar procedures at every border, for example. What has mainly been confirmed are the map and navigation changes, so that coaches can take the correct routes through border facilities.

It is also interesting that these changes are already present on the map. Update 1.61 has released the necessary foundations, even though the actual Coaches DLC still has no confirmed release date.

As a result, anyone travelling in a truck today may already see areas in some places whose actual significance will only become fully apparent later. The same applies to the newly built or revamped bus stations in cities such as Nuremberg, Karlstad, Aarhus or Thessaloniki.

This makes the preparation for Coaches unusually extensive. SCS is not simply expanding a vehicle pack, but is changing parts of the existing map and technical systems so that a second vehicle type can function meaningfully within the same game world at all.

Since the end of September, the new Mode-Switch system has also provided another building block for this separation. Truck Mode remains focused on freight and the classic company, while Coach Mode is later supposed to receive its own gameplay and progression system. The map itself remains the same – and that is precisely why places such as border crossings must work for both modes.

Until players can drive a coach through these newly prepared areas themselves, we will still have to wait for the DLC to be released. As of 1 October 2026, SCS Software has not yet announced a fixed date.

Do you consider such vehicle-specific routes at border crossings important – or would you prefer SCS to simulate the systems there in significantly greater detail?