The best way to start Transport Fever 3 is with the tutorial or the first campaign missions. Then, in a Free Game, take a loan, put your headquarters next to the town you want to grow first, and open with a short bus line between two neighbouring towns before building your first cargo route. The one rule that catches almost everyone: stations no longer store cargo, so every cargo line needs a real destination or a warehouse.
Here is the full opening, based on Urban Games’ official game manual and developer posts.
Step 1: Learn With the Tutorial or the Campaign
Transport Fever 3 has two main modes, the Campaign and the Free Game (also called the tycoon game), plus a quickstart tutorial. Urban Games’ FAQ says the first campaign missions double as the tutorial.
If you’d rather learn in a Free Game, turn on the Tutorial toggle under Map Settings > Environment when you create a new game. It walks you through:
- setting up your company, building your headquarters and managing loans
- reading town information and map layers
- your first bus line
- a cargo line with warehouses
- your first train line
When the tutorial ends, the map carries on as a normal game.
Step 2: Take Your First Loan
“At the beginning of a new game, the player’s bank account is empty, and they need to take a loan to start building,” the manual says. The Loans tab shows four offers at a time, and you can hold at most four loans. Interest depends on the difficulty you picked. Borrow what you need for your first lines, not the maximum, because interest is charged monthly.
Step 3: Place Your Headquarters Carefully
Your headquarters gives a growth bonus to the nearest town, starting at 5% on its growth multiplier. Put it beside the town you plan to build your network around, since that town will grow fastest and create the most passengers. Our guide to making towns grow explains the rest of the growth system.
Step 4: Build a Bus Line First
A short bus line between two neighbouring towns is cheap, quick to set up and profitable early:
- Build a bus station or stops in each town, using the passenger station type.
- Build a road depot and buy buses there.
- Open the Line Manager (L), choose New Line, and click your stops in order.
- Assign the buses to the line with Buy Vehicles. Vehicles bought at a depot don’t move until they’re assigned to a line.
Add extra stops, or a separate bus line inside the town, so more of the town sits inside your stations’ catchment area.
Step 5: Your First Cargo Chain, and the Warehouse Rule
For cargo, the manual’s example is carrying vegetables or fish to a commercial zone in a town that wants them. Check a town’s demands before you build.
This is the big change from Transport Fever 2. An Urban Games developer explained on Steam: “Ports, stations and other infrastructure no longer store any cargo… place a warehouse near your port… You can only unload cargo if it has a destination, so either a factory, an end consumer, or… a warehouse.”
- Warehouses must sit inside the station’s catchment area, and they don’t need road access.
- Universal warehouses hold any mix of cargo; specialized ones (liquid, bulk, flatbed or goods) load faster.
Some players report the tutorial’s fish step still won’t unload even with a warehouse; players suggest a universal warehouse as a workaround, though Urban Games hasn’t confirmed a fix.
Step 6: Build Trains Right
When you move on to rail:
- Buy enough wagons, and match the locomotive’s top speed to the wagons’.
- Make platforms at least as long as your trains, or loading slows down.
- Add signals wherever trains need to pass each other. Our train signals guide explains how.
Useful Keyboard Shortcuts
- 1 to 4: stations and depots for road, rail, water and air.
- 5 and 6: roads and tracks. 7: warehouses. 8: perks. 9: landscaping.
- B: bulldozer. L: Line Manager. F1: help.
- F10: quick save. Space: pause. Tab: change game speed.
Where to Go Next
Once you have a few profitable lines, our guide to making money fast covers loans, subsidies and why lines lose money. If you want to change the game itself, see installing mods. New buyers can check which edition to buy, and every guide is on our Transport Fever 3 hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a tutorial in Transport Fever 3? Yes. Turn on the Tutorial toggle under Map Settings > Environment in a new Free Game, or play the first campaign missions, which work as a tutorial.
Why can’t I unload cargo in Transport Fever 3? Stations no longer store cargo. It needs a destination: a factory, a town that wants it, or a warehouse inside the station’s catchment area.
Where should I put my headquarters? Next to the town you want to grow first, since it gives that town a growth bonus.
Why aren’t my new vehicles moving? Vehicles need to be assigned to a line in the Line Manager (L) before they drive anywhere.
How do I quick save? Press F10 on PC.