Note: Updated in November 2023 to cover the changes in the game and frequently asked questions from recent time.

We have a lot of questions people have asked us. Some are unique while others aren't. Here's a list of some of the more common bugs and questions:



Game clears them once a trains runs over them. However, under some circumstances, they may be left over allocated - e. g. after you build something from an allocated track o reverse a train so it does not use the whole route.

If it is a Signal, just right-click it

If it is some other element

1. Open its Configuration by middle click or clicking 'V' when hovering it
   
2. Press the Clear button (it has a broom icon)

Red experience points are granted by

• Freight contracts (one-time)
  
• Regional contracts (recurrent, one point for each leg)
  
• Urban Transit contracts (recurrent, one point for each run)

These contracts will only appear if you have their respective System Upgrades installed and Dispatcher Office building built.

To install the first two upgrades, you need 3 red points that are granted once you reach some threshold in green points per hour (8 in most maps but can be set for each map individually).

To get red experience points

1. Open System Upgrades to check the throughput threshold to get 3 red points, it is displayed above the bar on top (usually it is 8 green points per hour).
   
2. Reach this throughput threshold and get the points
   
3. Open System Upgrades, switch to Red tab and install either Freights[/] or Regional trains upgrade.
   
4. Open Construction and build a Dispatcher Office at some of your stations
   
5. Wait for a red contract to be generated
   
6. Accept the contract and operate its trains

Red contracts are covered by previous section. Here you will find a brief checklist of things needed to get them:

• Upgrade installed
  
• Dispatcher Office built. Preferably at some non-border station (to make things simple)
  
• Station of Dispatcher Office servicing wanted contract type. Middle-click the station sign to inspect: https://annotely.com/preview/aclp7zwr9r00020glgc2ex9f0l
  
• Other unlocked station servicing contract type. Mostly (except Urban Transit) you need at least one border station for trains to come in.
  
• Urban Transit only: Coach Yard built for the same station as Dispatcher Office

It is a situation when Regional train is being shunted using the shunting commands and a Reuse command with some large time (like 15 minutes) is enqueued. Surprisingly, the train does not wait but proceeds immediately.

In fact it is not a wait time but an advance time.

Advance Time: Time before the next leg's schedule start when reusing is performed.

It is because intermission duration may vary between 10 and 30 minutes but the preparation time is almost constant. Using the advance time setting, the train waits for variable time and then goes to the platform in a constant time frame, moving the variability from platforms to stabling tracks.

So the recommended value is something like like 3 minutes.


10 contracts with intermission seems to be a big deal!

Actually it is not needed to have 10 reg contracts per cycle because each rewards 2 red points so you need only 5 contracts. It should be pretty easy to accomplish:

1. Optional but very helpful: have the green traffic fully automated to be able to concentrate on the red traffic.
   
2. Chose a non-border station where you have at least 2 platforms not bought yet. These will be your stabling platforms.
   
3. Buy these platforms, connect them & build couple of Dispatcher Offices for this station
   
4. Accept 2 Reg contracts that do not need turn-around (just go from one side of the map to the other with intermission in your station). Configure the schedule so that first leg terminus is the same stabling platform as next leg origin.
   
5. Once the first leg ends, keep the train on its platform for the intermission. During the intermission, look for next such contracts.
   
6. When accepting each contract, use the Contract Configuration to plan its schedule so that it arrives to the stabling platform just after the previous train leaves.
   
7. Spend the first red points on Shunting Commands upgrade. Once you have it, enqueue just Reuse command for each train that stops at the stabling platform.
   
8. Accept 5-6 such simple contracts

5 contracts with 20 minutes of intermission need 100 stabling minutes while each platform provides 60 stabling minutes. So 2 platforms are more than enough to stable these trains.

With all traffic automated using the green tech & leg switch action semi-automated using the Shunting Commands it is pretty convenient to run the game even on 25× for a single cycle (2,5 minutes real time), just enqueuing 5 Reuse command manually. Once this "sprint cycle" is done, 10-12 points per cycle should be reached and Red Tier 2 unlocked.

It brings Stabling Sensor that can automate the setup described above & even scale it to the RT3 requirement of 35 red points per cycle.

You need to

1. Unlock Routing Queue in the Green tab of the System Upgrades panel.
   
2. Create the desired route
   
3. Hover the signal and press V or middle-click the signal. Signal Configuration opens opens up for the signal you selected.
   
4. Click the Perpetual Autoroute button (has ∞ symbol)

Now the signal will continuously route to the desired destination.

Press
If it does not help, try to reset game settings (including video settings). See the previous section.


They are Autoblocks. Autoblocks represent long sections of the tracks between the stations with signalling that allows automated movement of trains in segments of 1km length.

In real-world railways and in Rail Route as well, most of the control is performed in stations and sometimes junctions where trains can change direction, be routed to various destinations etc. These "hot spots" are connected by long and relatively simple tracks where trains just run one after another.

To condense the view, these are not depicted in full detail but just as a "shortcut" either in real dispatcher software or in Rail Route.

There is a Debug Menu. Press F2 to access it.

You can pour money and research points to the game either to try things or to play unlimited / sandbox mode.

Beware that score disappears once you cheat.


Each track has a specific length in meters. These lengths are:

• Straight track: 100 meters per square
  
• Diagonal track: 140 meters per square
  
• Autoblock: 1000 meters per segment

Reg trains have just one cab and are slow when running reversed. However, they can be either turner around when stabling or dispatched in reversed order from a Coach Yard if needed (e. g. in Masaryk Station).

To do so

1. Click the train
   
2. Open its Contract Configuration ('X' key)
   
3. Switch to the leg that should be dispatched in reversed order
   
4. Click the button displayed at it's first stop

Custom Timetable maps now support only trains that come via the border stations. Support for trains that originate at the Coach Yards building is on the ToDo list. You can work around by creating a separate coach yard station.


If your question wasn't answered, feel free to make a new thread here and let us know!

We'll update this list with the most frequent questions we get. If you want a faster response time for your question, join us in the discord and ask us there!

https://discord.gg/avBjPqT


How can I fix if...

Symptoms including but not only:

1. The rendering is broken
   
2. Game turns into fullscreen mode and logo is displayed,
   
3. Screen becomes black with rainbow spinning forever.

Make sure you are not running the Steam Client beta version. Go to Steam > Preferences > Interface and on Client Beta Participation, select No Beta Chosen

If it does not help, try changing the SIP Settings - we encountered situation when the game ran only if set to the more strict mode.

If it does not work, try the topic Game is crashing or frozen when trying to start it below.


Try running the game with OpenGL instead of Vulcan. To do so, put the following into launch options:

If it does not work, try the next topic.


Sometimes Steam Client does not download the game properly or it has a faulty descriptor.

1. Go to Properties > Installed Files and click Verify integrity of game files
   
2. If it does not help, try Properties > Betas & select rr_02 under Beta Participation. If the game runs then, switch back to None and try again. (Why? It seems that Steam Client breaks the installation descriptor so it is not able to download all game files properly; verification works against the broken descriptor without refreshing it).
   
3. If you are a Mac player, make sure you are not using Steam Client beta (see above)
   
4. Update GPU driver and try again
   
5. Completely uninstall and then install again the GPU driver. Chose complete rather than express installation. (We had cases when just updating was not enough. The driver was presumably installed incorrectly and the driver installer did not update that particular file because it was not changed by in the new version. Only fresh install helped). Try again.
   
6. If possible, open Options → Video → Display and change Window mode from Borderless Fullscreen Window to Windowed or vice versa
   
7. If not possible or did not help, open game settings location:
   Windows: Winkey+R, Run "regedit", find Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\bitrich\ Linux: ~/.config/unity3d/bitrich/ Mac: ~/Library/Preferences/bitrich/
8. There, delete the Rail Route directory.
   
9. Restart the game

If the problem persists, please try older versions of the game. They are available as Betas section in Steam Client. Some older GPUs can run older versions but fail to start newer as they are missing some API the game needs to run.


An uncommon bug on Linux.

Solution:

1. Open Options
   
2. In Video section, set Window mode to Borderless Fullscreen Window
   
3. Restart the game

If the file is from official Steam distribution, you should not worry. To be sure, feel free to upload the file to be scanned by dozens of respected anti-virus programs. Seldom it happens that there is false-positive detection even by first-class program.

You can even send the file to the anti-virus software vendor for investigation and white-listing.

Most probably you have a Mac & played version 1.5.9 for a while. There was a bug that is already fixed in 1.5.10 but the saves from 1.5.9 stayed in the wrong place. So you can:

1. Ensure you already have version 1.5.10 (displayed in main menu in the top left corner just below Rail Route logo.
   
2. If not, exit the game, exit and re-run steam. It will update the game
   
3. Move all the most recent saves from
   ~/Library/Application Support/Rail-Route/saves
   back to
   ~/Library/Application Support/RailRoute/saves/
4. If you created some custom maps in 1.5.9, move them from
   ~/Library/Application Support/Rail-Route/community levels
   to
   ~/Library/Application Support/RailRoute/community levels
   as well

Maybe you use a Linux distro with Pipewire. If so, put the following into launch options:

(original thread)


Please report a bug:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/1124180/discussions/0/3123785722654342594/

Happy dispatching!