Game user guide
Everything you need to plan services, manage trains, protect passengers and build a successful railway company.
What do you want to learn?
Search features, decisions, statuses and common problems across 21 detailed guides.
Getting started
Create your operator, open a viable first route and understand the core management loop.
Read guide 02Daily operator playbook
A practical routine for keeping a growing company profitable, reliable and ready to expand.
Read guide 03Profitability tips
Avoid the most common economic mistakes and make each pound support the timetable.
Read guideComplete guide library
21 articles across 7 categories
Getting started
Create your operator, open a viable first route and understand the core management loop.
Dashboard and real-time clock
Read the operator overview, understand real-time operation and prioritise management alerts.
Planning and managing routes
Choose stations, calling points, fares and infrastructure that form a workable route.
Timetables and daily services
Set frequency and operating hours, calculate fleet needs and interpret individual workings.
Fleet allocation and train states
Allocate persistent trainsets, preserve spares and understand what every unit is doing.
Engineering and maintenance
Use mileage limits, workshop bookings and spare planning to prevent failures.
Procurement, leases and upgrades
Compare new, leased and second-hand stock and improve trains for a specific operating role.
Passenger experience and demand
Understand the five satisfaction measures and how sustained performance changes route demand.
Contracts and service obligations
Take stable public-service support without allowing performance penalties to overwhelm it.
Disruptions and operational response
Respond to route, station and network incidents while balancing revenue, recovery and obligations.
Interchange, depots and congestion
Build a connected network without allowing positioning costs or busy stations to erase the benefit.
Demand research and route selection
Use real origin-destination demand, fares and connections to choose routes that have a market before committing fleet.
Stations and passenger facilities
Improve the stations in your network with facilities that strengthen demand, revenue, satisfaction, reliability and safety.
Finance and profitability
Read route economics correctly, control recurring costs and preserve enough cash to operate.
Government grants and offline earnings
Understand the daily operating grant, how it accrues in real time and how offline activity is reported when you return.
Operating strategy and progression
Choose an operating stance, meet daily standards and grow the route allowance.
Offline operations and returning to the game
Know what continues while you are away, what is settled on return and how to read the Welcome back report.
Service and train status reference
Decode every timetable status and the most important live train states.
Daily operator playbook
A practical routine for keeping a growing company profitable, reliable and ready to expand.
Profitability tips
Avoid the most common economic mistakes and make each pound support the timetable.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to common questions about time, revenue, cancellations, fleet and progress.