The Bus Lübeck: Line 40 ends much earlier in the DLC than in reality!

The upcoming The Bus DLC Lübeck will include the two beach lines at launch 30 and 40. Both start at Lübeck ZOB or the main station and lead out through the city towards the Baltic coast. However, there is an important difference between Line 40 and its real-life counterpart: It will not be fully implemented in the DLC.

In the real route network, Line 40 currently operates on the route ZOB/main station – Scharbeutz station. From Lübeck, it runs via Kücknitz and Travemünde along the coast. The journey is therefore far from over after Strandbahnhof.

Beyond Travemünde, this includes further areas around Steenkamp and Warnsdorf, followed by Niendorf, via Timmendorfer Strand and finally to Scharbeutz station. This entire section is missing from the DLC's initially planned scope.

That is considerably more than just a single omitted stop. In virtual Lübeck, players do travel as far as the Baltic Sea and reach Travemünde, one of the most important parts of the route, but the real Line 40 continues from there through several well-known Baltic seaside resorts.

It is therefore particularly interesting that Halycon takes a different approach with Line 30. Line 30 is planned to be implemented in full, while Line 40 will explicitly only be included as far as Travemünde Strandbahnhof.

The developers have specifically explained why it ends there. Strandbahnhof offers suitable opportunities for turning the bus around and, at the same time, enough space for the break between two trips. This makes the location a practical terminus within the virtual route.

So this is not an arbitrary stopping point somewhere in the middle of the line. Halycon deliberately chose a real location where a line terminus can also be portrayed credibly from an operational perspective.

Nevertheless, the line is considerably shorter than in reality. For example, anyone expecting to make a complete journey from Lübeck via Travemünde to Timmendorfer Strand or Scharbeutz will not be able to do so in the DLC at launch.

A look at the real timetable also shows that, even there, Line 40 does not necessarily serve the entire route to Scharbeutz on every trip. Depending on the day of the week, season and journey, individual services may already end at Timmendorfer ZOB or also at Travemünde Strandbahnhof.

This makes the DLC's implementation somewhat more interesting, because Travemünde is not a completely fictional terminus. In real operations, journeys can also end there. However, the basic route of Line 40 will still continue to Scharbeutz station in 2026.

So anyone who simply says that Line 40 generally ends in Travemünde in reality would be misrepresenting the actual timetable. The correct statement is: Travemünde can be the terminus of individual journeys in real operations, but the full line extends considerably farther, to Scharbeutz.

In the DLC, this possible intermediate terminus initially becomes the fixed line terminus. As a result, the expansion focuses more strongly on Lübeck and Travemünde and does not also have to recreate large parts of the coastal region around Niendorf, Timmendorfer Strand and Scharbeutz.

Halycon itself communicates this point commendably clearly. The current FAQ explicitly distinguishes between the two lines: Line 30 in full, Line 40 only as far as Travemünde.

Is Travemünde enough for you as the terminus of Line 40 – or should the missing section via Timmendorfer Strand to Scharbeutz definitely be added later?

Image credit: Clic / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0