I've only played the demo, so I can't say a whole lot, or what I say might be outdated.
From my experience, the game seemed to lack a whole lot of control, and pre-planning. For instance, if I were to link 2 separate rail tracks together, all the trains from the local service might decide to clutter the express lane. Likewise, I could not somehow pre-plan my track placements so that it would not only look good and work well. I also had to pay for any screw ups I made to get things to look good and work well.
If its of any interest, a bunch of new train games arrived on Impulse today. The info on some of the games indicate you can choose to be the driver. If you are not playing competively, this game might give you a more "in character" experience.
Click the link to read more:
http://www.impulsedriven.com/news/1263_Aurans_Trains_Series_Comes_to_Impulse