Transport Fever 3: Build Stations and Cargo Lines That Scale

Here's how to place stations and move cargo without bottlenecks in Transport Fever 3.

Stations and cargo lines in Transport Fever 3 cause the most trouble once a network grows. This guide covers placement first, then cargo and line setup. Controls here use mouse and keyboard.

Place Stops and Depots Out of the Way in Transport Fever 3

Keep bus stops and cargo drops off the main road, the one traffic uses to enter, leave or pass through town. On a single-lane road, a stopped bus holds up everything behind it, so use a side road and keep the same catchment.

Depots and stations make noise, and residents dislike it. Check the town overlay and build on the commercial or industrial side, since residential areas keep growing toward anything you put near them.

Set buildings back from the road instead of right against it. Rotate with M and N, step the building back, and join it with a road, so later road upgrades don't force you to move it.

Lay Out Train Stations for Through Traffic

Build a Terminus only at the edge of the map, where no line will need to continue. Place the station beside the main track instead of on it, so through trains bypass it at full speed. Join the station into the track, then rejoin on the far side if the line carries on.

Maintenance buildings need no road, so put them where vehicles wait. Trains get faster over time and spend more of each trip at stations, so cover as many stations as you can, or place the building at the end of a route where vehicles stay longest.

Trace Supply Chains in Transport Fever 3

Click a factory and open its Input Stocks, then zoom out to see each Supplier on the map. Output Stocks shows where its goods can go, and it may turn up a second buyer. A dye works, for example, may find a second textile factory across town, while plastic can go to a tool or machine factory a boat trip away. 

A town's Supplies tab also traces each need back to a source. It shows where people travel for work and shopping, and the cargo view lists where to get goods such as cement or meat.

Read the Overlays

The overlays sit in the top-left corner, or you can open them with the numeric keypad. Terrain on keypad 0 color-codes elevation and helps when you lay track.

The Town overlay marks industry in purple alongside the three district colors. Route trucks around residential areas, and use it to find where a delivery belongs, such as meat to the commercial district.

Infrastructure on keypad 2 shows passenger, cargo and maintenance coverage. It reveals parts of a town that have outgrown your stops, and depots that serve only half a town.

Passenger Flow on keypad 4 shows public transport in green and private cars in blue, and a stream of cars between two towns marks a route worth adding. Passenger Satisfaction on keypad 5 turns red where trips run too slow.

Cargo Flow on keypad 6 shows supply rate, with a darker color meaning better flow. Cargo Satisfaction shows on-time delivery in green, late in red, and slow stretches in yellow.

Noise and Pollution use keypads 8 and 9, and the town tab lists what adds the most of each. The HUD filters hide icons you don't need.

How Warehouses Work in Transport Fever 3

Every cargo in Transport Fever 3 has an expected delivery time, with less time for food than for bulk goods like coal. Late deliveries lower the town's rating, and the Delivery Time tab in your company window lists the times.

Goods stored in a warehouse stop their delivery clock. Factories already hold output in their own buffer, so they don't need one. Warehouses are passive: vehicles don't drive in, and nothing leaves unless a vehicle picks it up.

Place a warehouse inside the circle of influence of both stations it links, such as a port bringing in chemicals and a train station taking them onward.

Click Configure on a warehouse to add tanks and set each one to a cargo, for example 1,000 chemicals and 500 fuel.

A town won't take cargo from a warehouse, so don't use one as a delivery buffer at a shopping district. Only your vehicles move goods in and out.

Control Gradients on Roads and Track

Climbing slows every vehicle, and trains feel it most. Follow Terrain is on by default; press T to switch it off and get one fixed gradient from start to end.

Switch the mode to incline to lock a set gradient, such as 5%, and the road holds it as it climbs. Train lines suit about 3% even if you pay to cut through ground, while trucks can follow the ground or hold around 9%.

The comma and full stop keys raise or lower a road's height. Bend works vertically, using M and N, and helps when you need to bridge over track. Curves come from clicking once and dragging.

Junctions slow vehicles, and 90-degree corners slow them most. On a country road built for speed, cut the corner with a triangle junction so traffic keeps its pace.

Each turn lowers the speed limit on track, down to 44 km/h on one curve in testing. Passenger trains have less tractive effort than freight trains, so keep gradients on their lines to a minimum.

Lay Track in This Order

Lay the track, fly along it to check every junction, create the line, and add signals last. A track can miss a junction with no warning, and a missing slip stops a line from returning to its first platform.

With signals added last, any fault that appears afterward comes from a signal. A one-way signal on the wrong side breaks a line, and that's easy to misclick when you're zoomed out.

Split Pickup and Delivery Lines in Transport Fever 3

Run delivery and pickup on separate lines in Transport Fever 3, even for the same cargo. A delivery truck wants to unload and leave, while a pickup truck waits, and on one line a truck waiting to load can block one that needs to unload.

On a delivery line, wait for a full load and cap it with Max Stop Time, for example 82 seconds. At the drop-off, tick Force Unload All Cargo On Arrival so trucks empty even when stocks are full and nothing rides back to the source. Food needs this most, since its window runs out fast. 

On a pickup line, cap the wait at around 3 minutes so trucks don't back up into the drop-off. A spacing setting, such as 28 seconds after loading, sends them out one after another.

Passenger lines work differently. Short trips can just pick up and go, while long trips can wait for a full load with a low maximum wait both ways.

Separate Passenger and Cargo Stations

Train stations can mix passenger and cargo platforms if each has its own line. At road stations, keep them apart, because queued buses or trams lock delivery trucks out.

The default road station sends traffic in and out on one road and is hard to expand. Place the single style instead, rotate it with M and N, and hold Shift to keep it from snapping onto the road.

Remove the two-way road, add a one-way entrance and a one-way exit, and connect them with country roads, giving each as much length as the space allows. The Line Manager then hooks the station up on its own. To add a platform later, delete part of the road, extend the station, and restore the one-way.

Find Money in Cargo That Factories Destroy

A red bar on a factory in Transport Fever 3 marks cargo it destroys because its output buffer is full. That's cargo you can sell, as long as there's a buyer.

Check the ratios first. One oil plant turned 4 oil into 1 fertilizer, 4 chemicals and 2 fuel, so fertilizer there earns little but can boost a grain farm. Plastic needs a town that has leveled up further before you can ship it.

Foundational factories, such as a grain farm, need no inputs and hold stock from the start. Intermediate factories only produce once you deliver inputs, and they won't release goods until a station at a destination exists.

A glass works fed with sand, for example, holds its glass until you build a station at a brewery and create a line to it. The glass then flows into that line.

Switch Bus Routes to Trams

Once a platform fills up or a route needs many buses, trams carry more with less noise and pollution. In the early years, buses hold around 12 passengers, while tram cars couple together, so a four-car tram can carry 48.

Open the road menu, click the wrench icon and pick the tram track tool. Click the road at your station to upgrade the whole station, then lay track along the bus route on the inside or outside lanes.

Add trams to the bus line and phase the buses out. Passengers walk out to the middle lane to board, so center track works fine. When you add a waypoint with Shift, place it on the tram track, or trams can't reach it. Trams can also run on rail track, and in the late game they spread cargo across a town with little noise.

Bring Workers to Industries

Workers boost industry output, by 75% on one crop farm. Road vehicles reportedly carry either passengers or cargo, but some ships take both.

A ship heading out for fish can carry workers on the same trip. A bus line feeding the port then keeps those workers coming.

What to Do Next

Open Passenger Flow and look for towns where most people drive. Check your factories for the red bar before you plan a cargo line. Set wait times on a new line before you buy its vehicles. When buses start to queue at a stop, price out tram track for that route.

Stations built off busy roads and cargo lines split by job keep a growing network moving.

FAQ

Q. Where should bus stops go in Transport Fever 3?

A. Put them on side roads so a stopped bus doesn't hold up traffic on the main road.

Q. Will a town pick up goods from my warehouse?

A. Towns ignore warehouse stock entirely, and only your vehicles can move goods in or out.

Q. Why is my factory destroying cargo in Transport Fever 3?

A. Its output buffer has filled up. Shipping that cargo somewhere turns the loss into income.

Q. When should I add signals to a new rail line?

A. After the line runs end to end, so any later fault points straight to a signal.

Also check out our Review of the game and other guides below:

• Transport Fever 3 Review
• Transport Fever 3: Beginner Guide to Get Started
• Transport Fever 3: Shortcuts and Tools That Save Time