Terms as the game uses them, not as the railway industry does. Where they differ, the game's meaning wins.
The network
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Line | An ordered list of stops with a colour and a schedule. One mode: train, tram, bus or ferry. |
| Stop | A station or a route point that a line calls at. |
| Loop | A line that circles back on itself rather than reversing at the end. |
| Lap | One one-way run of the line. The round trip is both directions. |
| Headway | Time between departures at a stop. Derived from the fleet and the lap time. |
| Transfer | Changing lines during a trip. Costs the transfer fare, and often the most valuable thing your network does. |
| Passage | A paid link between two nearby stations, making them one complex for transfers. |
| Complex | A group of stations joined by passages. Upgrades can apply to the whole complex. |
| Terminal | A station upgrade with sidings past the platform, letting trains turn off the platform and doubling turning capacity. |
| Depot | The notional pool of vehicles you own. Lines draw their vehicles from it. |
Track and capacity
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Blueprint | Track or stations you have drawn but not constructed. Free until built, and editable. |
| Level | One of seven heights, +3 to −3, at which track is drawn. A level difference makes a flyover. |
| Flyover | Track crossing another line at a different level, so the two do not conflict. |
| Flat crossing | Two tracks crossing at the same level; one route waits for the other. |
| Junction | A point where track splits or joins, with its own capacity cost. |
| Merge | A point where trains from several lines join one track. |
| Passing point | A place on single track where trains can pass each other. |
| Passing tracks | A station upgrade letting faster trains overtake slower ones that are stopped. |
| Braking gap | The spacing each train needs behind it for braking and signals — longer at higher speed. |
| Dwell | Time a train spends stopped at a platform. Counts against the lap time. |
| Rated capacity | The load a vehicle is designed to carry. |
| Crush capacity | The maximum it can physically take. Above rated, riders are uncomfortable and the model penalises it. |
Demand
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Demand bubble | A cluster of homes shown on the map, coloured by how those people mostly travel. |
| Mode split | The share of trips walking, driving and using transit. Shown on the bar at the top. |
| Transit share | Transit trips ÷ all trips, in a city. The game's headline score. |
| Effective time | The single minutes figure the model compares modes with: walking, waiting, riding, parking, fares and vehicle ownership all converted to minutes. |
| Demand period | One of five parts of the day the model solves separately: morning peak, midday, evening peak, evening, night. |
| Demand level | The three buckets the schedule uses — high, medium, low — which map onto the periods. |
| Purpose | Why a trip is made: work, school, university, errands, leisure, medical, airports, attractions. |
| Intercity trip | A trip between two cities, as opposed to within one. |
| Metro area | The modelled extent of a city. A station belongs to the smallest area containing it. |
Money
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Base fare | The fare for the shortest trip, at the start of the fare curve. |
| Fare curve | Base fare plus rates per kilometre across stretches of distance. |
| Transfer fare | Charged each time a trip changes lines. |
| Upkeep | Daily cost of everything you have built, running or not. |
| Running costs | Daily cost of the vehicles in service. |
| Profit | Fares minus running costs and upkeep. Excludes one-off construction and vehicle purchases. |
| Points | Leaderboard currency: one per trip, one per kilometre, counted over 24 hours. |
| Sandbox | A game with unlimited money. Excluded from leaderboards and community sharing. |
Modes and vehicles
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| High-speed | A vehicle and track class. High-speed cars run only on high-speed track, and up to a much higher top speed. |
| Tram | A lighter vehicle running on tram track, including on streets. |
| Ferry | A boat line drawn between ports across water. Routes are free to draw; ports and boats are not. |
| Standard track speed | The ceiling normal track puts on ordinary trains, regardless of what the trains could do. |
A note on numbers
This glossary defines the concepts. The game's exact thresholds, prices and speeds change between builds and are quoted in its own panels — those panels are always the authority. Everything here was checked against build 1648.