✦ Craft & Quest

Transport Fever 3 · Station queues

An empty platform is not automatically an alternative stop

On this page
  1. Find the stop you are actually changing
  2. Check the approach before buying another vehicle
  3. What to watch during the next queue
  4. Keep platform access separate from handling

Enable the spare terminal for that line's stop and confirm it is reachable. The extra platform is useful only if an approaching vehicle can choose it when the primary terminal is occupied.

Published October 19, 2026 · Mouse and keyboard · Current developer manual

Official bus-station view with a plus above terminal3 and brighter primary versus translucent alternative route
Official game UI, © Urban Games. This example is a road station. Terminal3 has a green +; the alternative approach is drawn more transparently. Source.

Find the stop you are actually changing

Open the line manager, select the service and find this station in its lower stop list. Check the stop name before changing platforms: a service visiting the same station twice can have two different entries.

Official line stop row with Move Stop tooltip pointing to the move-stop action
The Move Stop action is on the selected row. This developer example shows Cherry Street on the Daegu–Fish line; use your own line and stop. Developer manual, © Urban Games.

To change the main terminal, use Move Stop and choose the intended location. To keep the primary and add backups, use the alternative-terminal control; while moving a stop, the world view also offers + above terminals that can be added. Replacing the primary and enabling alternatives solve different tasks.

Check the approach before buying another vehicle

For road vehicles, the choice is made at the station entrance. Trains make it at the last signal before the station; open the line window or manager to identify that signal by its blinking line-coloured arrow. Every enabled rail alternative must be reachable from there.

A track connected elsewhere in the station is not enough. Trace the approach to the intended platform and its departure towards the next stop. If the game flags a connection, read it before expanding the selection.

What to watch during the next queue

  1. Keep the existing primary terminal and add one intended alternative.
  2. Confirm the selection belongs to the correct stop entry.
  3. Watch a vehicle approaching while the primary is occupied.
  4. Record whether it takes the alternative, waits outside or reports an unreachable segment.

If an enabled alternative is unused, investigate its access from the decision point. If both terminals are occupied, another alternative cannot create space on the shared approach or exit. Inspect where the queue begins rather than adding platforms to the far end of it.

For ships, selection happens at the waiting point outside the harbour; for aircraft, at the runway's end. Do not copy the road-station layout in the screenshot as a railway signal plan.

Keep platform access separate from handling

A vehicle reaching a free platform may still load slowly or wait for cargo. After proving the route works, inspect platform length and loading modifiers or the departure rule. Changing all three at once makes it difficult to see what fixed the original queue.

Source checked October 19, 2026: developer manual sections Alternative Terminals and Connection Problems. Screenshots show their documented controls; the inspection order is an editorial troubleshooting method, not a measured throughput test. All guides →