[Suggestion] Automatic Separation at defined station

[ReluctantOwl]

This might just be an "issue" that I am getting but others may get this too.

When I have a couple of mix uses lines converging, such that I am running slow freight and faster passenger trains together, I sometimes find that my passenger trains get ahead (and behind, though that's less of a problem) of schedule. This usually occurs when the timing of a route has been calculated behind traffic resulting in a journey time of 10 days actually taking 5 days in clear conditions, which sometime occur depending on the line. This creates an issue where the first train on the line is running ahead of schedule and the next train is on time or late. The leading train will get to the first station and just sit there until some of the early operation has been restored and then moves to the next stop waits. If you have a couple of early trains on a route you can quickly end up with a long backlog of trains which causes a lot of delays.

In the above example each station is 2 platforms, and there are two tracks and no bypasses in place.

Whilst I appreciate that in some ways this is realistic as you wouldn't depart a train early if it is running ahead of schedule, there isn't (seemingly) a way to operate the the railway to a rigid timetable where multiple routes converge and diverge without micro-managing every route.

My suggestion would be that there be a mechanism of stopping trains from waiting when running ahead of schedule at specific stations. On busy 2 line sections you'd want the trains to wait where they are not going to impact other trains, be that on other branches or at bigger stations, or even terminal stations. I love the auto-separation feature but occasionally I do end up with a lot of bunched trains where early running trains are catching up on their timetable. I also am aware that this pushes the bunching to other locations, though I can't help but feel it might make some terminals look more realistic with trains waiting in the platforms rather than almost immediately leaving... that's a very much aesthetic benefit. This idea might also make the whole bunching way worse and end up with lots of stations with queues. Who knows!

I appreciate that not everyone plays the game quite like I do and, as such, won't have experienced this issue.

Also very much open to ideas on other ways to solve this "issue".

[JGRennison]

You can use the leave early timetable flag to do this. Just set this on the stations where you don't want to wait until the timetabled departure time.

In general, sections with many stations, none of which allow overtaking, can result in different shared order groups delaying each other if the traffic density is high and auto-separation is in use.
Either you'll need to use more coordinated timetables (i.e. scheduled dispatch), add platforms to enable overtaking at some stations, or consider re-organising services a bit.