NEWS & PATCH NOTES

Every change that reaches the servers, what it does and why it changed. Balance passes land live, so if you played yesterday something below is already different.

v1.06222 SEPTEMBER 2026

The Price You See

The hidden surcharge on new vehicles and funded industries is gone. The costs you can see got steeper instead.

• New vehicles and funded industries no longer carry a charge the buy menu could not show you.
• The funded-industry surcharge was never scaled by difficulty - Easy paid it as hard as Hell.
• Operating costs, upkeep and new construction still inflate, and now half again as fast.
• Normal and Easy charters are untouched by any of it.
• Town authorities are permissive - no council refuses your stations. Airports still answer to noise.
• Type /time in chat for the match clock.

v1.06121 SEPTEMBER 2026

Go Wider

How far your network reaches now decides what it is worth, and every fleet cap has doubled.

• A network spanning a dozen places now beats a small tidy one - reaching past what a web needs finally counts.
• It pays less each time, so spreading wide never covers for cargo you are not moving.
• Meeting every need is about a third of a perfect score, not all of it.
• Fleet caps doubled: 3,000 road, 1,000 trains, 2,000 ships, 1,000 aircraft.
• Hard charters inflate their costs twice as fast; Normal and Easy are untouched.
• Fixed: the Headquarters brands Compare tab now shows who carries your brand.

v1.0620 SEPTEMBER 2026

Stations Grow Cities

The stations you build now speed a town's growth instead of crowding it out, and every toyland plane can carry soft drinks.

• Stations in a town now speed its growth - a railway ring helps instead of penning it in.
• A train station counts for five bus stops; an airport counts by its size.
• Each further doubling of growth costs about thirty per cent more transport than the last.
• Every toyland plane and helicopter can refit to Soft Drinks.
• Refinement cuts output the moment you set it - build quality high, then drop it and ship in bulk.
• A Discord channel posts each new livestream.

v1.0519 SEPTEMBER 2026

The Long Game

Developed industries grow far bigger, quality has become a slow climb called refinement, and a trusted brand now takes real years to build.

• Develop an industry and it produces about fifteen times more at the top.
• Quality is refinement now - a monthly chance to climb, with no ceiling.
• Output eases down as quality rises; the top tier is worth about twenty-five times the base.
• Industrialists refine twice as fast, and premium factories pay their owners more.
• A brand's awareness is harder to max, and seeded rivals adopt the best name.
• Set a minimum refinement per product, in chat or on Headquarters.

v1.0417 SEPTEMBER 2026

Make Your Name

Every industry good carries a quality you can raise, a brand is worth its reputation among the cargo's rivals, and you can build and own your own industries. Harder charters bite harder as your company ages.

• Products carry a quality - raise the target to trade output for value.
• A brand is worth its reputation against the other names on the cargo.
• Build any industry and own its stake outright.
• Efficiency is the Industrialist's class and a research track, not a slider.
• Hard charters no longer ease off once the money rolls.
• Yield a brand to another player, or manage yours from the Headquarters brand tabs.

v1.0316 SEPTEMBER 2026

Room To Grow

A developed industry no longer stops at eight times its opening output, and a plant fed by enough of them moves far more than it could. Brands are worth what you can sell the cargo for.

• Industries answer to development past the old ceiling.
• Plants convert far more of what you deliver to them.
• A brand's pot is priced on the fare and the market bonus together.
• An industry weighs your price when it picks whose name to sell under.
• Achievements are goals that tick off, in thirteen categories.

v1.02215 SEPTEMBER 2026

Thirty-Two Worlds

Every server now draws its next world from 32 when it resets, and sixteen of them are new real-world maps.

• Sixteen new maps, from Turkey and Korea to Alaska, drawn at random at every reset.
• Network health: the network bonus goes to networks that meet their demand, reach many destinations and carry cargo far.
• Market events such as droughts, plagues and wars change a few cargo prices for months at a time.
• Towns count passengers and mail both ways, and want a third of the food, goods and water.
• Subsidies pay for five years, and Headquarters has a new Infrastructure tab.

v1.02114 SEPTEMBER 2026

Headquarters

A new page for a second screen while you play: your company's books as the game keeps them, your headquarters and holdings photographed each game year, and research on a plan.

• Every vehicle's true profit, the balance sheet line by line, your market prices, holdings, brands, network and the world's standings.
• Research on a plan: a share of each month's profit invested for you, never more than 50 per cent of your bank.
• The market bonus is worked out from the fares your vehicles really earned.
• Anyone can vote a postcard up. Every player has a CEO portrait, on the site, the broadcast and their postcards.
• The broadcast's weather comes in sunny and gloomy windows, and you can hear it.

v1.0213 SEPTEMBER 2026

Postcards and Seasons

GRF v102 puts Mk wagons on monorail and maglev. A season ladder opens on 1 October, the broadcast snaps postcards for players to vote on, and brand value has a real ceiling.

• A season every quarter: points for finishing, placing, contracts, records and hours played, with 16 titles and 8 crests to earn.
• A postcard every 10 minutes off the broadcast. Vote them into a Collection of the best 1,000, posted to #postcards on Discord.
• Brand value tops out at 300 per cent after prestige. Freight trains carry double weight.
• Contract rows take you to the objective and are coloured by state. Cargo names stand out in blue.
• Recaps draw each session's maps, AI companies buy their own research, and The World map is whole and starts in 1990.

v1.01111 SEPTEMBER 2026

Sixteen Worlds

Eight servers carry sixteen worlds now. Each slot alternates between the generated world it always ran and a new one built on the real map, and the two kinds are staggered so both are always live.

• Eight real maps: the United Kingdom, Europe, Scandinavia and Russia, Japan, East Asia, Africa, the whole world and North America, from 1940 to 2020.
• Contracts arrive 5 at a time every quarter, the same 5 for every company; the ones you do not finish fail and five more arrive.
• A haul or city pair contract opens a real subsidy on its own route, kept open until somebody takes it.
• Markets and vehicle types open level instead of at the ceiling, and one route no longer swings a market on its own.
• Towns want every cargo from the first day, store 24 months of it, and pay your holdings more when they are fed.

v1.0110 SEPTEMBER 2026

One Big Web

The cargo network counted the units it delivered and called them destinations, so a hub feeding eight banks scored no more than four lines feeding two each. Reach counts now, it pays a premium on every unit, and it spreads a brand.

• Every place a web connects beyond the first lifts that web by 25 per cent; each web counts its own places, so joining them is what pays.
• 50 per cent of the lift is paid on every unit delivered, and the whole lift speeds the cargo's brand awareness.
• Your Network and Your Brands show their arithmetic with your own numbers, and the book answers during the settlement.
• Towns are named from 250 recorded world cities; docks and ship depots pay their own upkeep.
• /profile is live for the broadcast; the strategy AIs build short rails again. Nothing new to download.

v1.009 SEPTEMBER 2026

The Engine and the Wagon

Rail had twenty-three engine lines that differed mainly in which cargo each one was locked to. There are now five, each with a character, and the cargo has moved to the wagons, which gained eight marks of their own. GRF v100, so this one is a download.

• Five rail lines from I to VII: Express Rail, Heavy Diesel, Commuter DMU, Bullion Express and the Boxcar DMU.
• Express Rail climbs to maglev. Heavy Diesel never electrifies, so the cheap option stays cheap all session.
• Specialist wagons now run Mk1 to Mk8: a Coal Wagon goes from 45 to 136, and a wagon improves every train you own.
• The specialisation unlocks the wagon family; the mark you can build is your rail Mk ceiling.
• Fleet 14,625. Road, ships and aircraft are unchanged, and no talent node moved.

Read the notes › v0.9948 SEPTEMBER 2026

The Shape of Your Network

A server patch on top of v0.993. Station upkeep is now charged on the ground a station covers, measured on both axes and multiplied together, so a compact stop pays what it always did and a city welded into one station pays many times over. A full guide to building a network is included. GRF v99 unchanged, nothing to download.

• Station upkeep is $50 a tile a month, times a surcharge for how far the station is spread on each axis.
• The two axes multiply: an 18 by 18 station pays sixteen times the going rate on every tile it owns.
• Build tidily and you pay slightly less than before. Weld a city together and the bill runs into the tens of thousands.
• The 18 tile station spread limit and the 5 tile gap budget are unchanged.
• The value board becomes CORPORATE and shows company value plus research; TRANSPORT is multiplied up to three times by a real cargo network.

Read the notes › v0.9937 SEPTEMBER 2026

The Name on the Cargo

A server patch on top of v0.992. Every industry sells under the brand of its leading stakeholder, and what a brand earns is split between the company that carried it, the company whose name is on it and the stakeholders who made it. The Industrialist trades half its development nodes for dividend nodes. GRF v99 unchanged, nothing to download.

• Brand value is up to 400% of a unit's worth, split 60 / 20 / 20 between the carrier, the brand's owner and the makers.
• Power stations, water towers and banks resell: a further 20% markup to their own stakeholders on everything they consume.
• The Magnate's Treasury Bond crowns become Brand Prestige, and a Brand research category adds one awareness track per cargo.
• Half the Industrialist's development nodes now raise dividends, which have no ceiling; a full build reaches +95% development and +86% dividends.
• Industrial Trusts become Industrial Specialisations: +10% development and dividends for every works of a type you serve beyond the first.

Read the notes › v0.9926 SEPTEMBER 2026

Every Hour Counts

A server patch on top of v0.991. Session XP rewards staying the course, with base XP banked at every hour marker, doubled podiums and a steeper finish multiplier. AI companies keep out of monopoly towns, HQ reach skips them for everyone, and research gains a track for every industry type. GRF v99 unchanged, nothing to download.

• 50 base XP banked at the 1, 2 and 3 hour boards and at the finish, so a full match carries a base of 250 instead of 50; each board posts the standings to Discord.
• Podiums 300 / 200 / 100 within your charter; +10% per company beneath you on each board, +15% overall, +30% per contract.
• AI companies build nothing in a town another company holds a Monopoly Charter in, even inside their own region.
• HQ reach skips another company's monopoly town and takes the next one instead.
• Research: one track per industry type, +5% development speed and +5% stake dividends per level.

Read the notes › v0.9915 SEPTEMBER 2026

Two Doors, Two Depots

A server patch on top of v0.99. The Rail Baron wires a real terminus, stops sleeping on its money, and every vehicle class sticks to its mode. Holdings income comes down to match the faster industries, and a rebate leak on selling vehicles is closed. GRF v99 unchanged - nothing to download.

• Every platform gets a straight exit with its own path signal; the two main lines meet the station at two doors.
• A depot on each side of the arriving lane at both ends of a double track, so waiting trains sit off the running line.
• Rail Barons cycle long, medium, short instead of failing at long surveys all session.
• Roadmasters build road only, Admirals sea only, Aviators air only; the industry holdings dividend drops to 900.
• Every industry opens at half its vanilla output, so the engine's ceiling sits sixteen times above the start.
• XP talents and XP research multiply session XP on their own, after the finish bonus, instead of adding into one percentage.

Read the notes › v0.995 SEPTEMBER 2026

Worth Specialising

Every single-cargo jet now beats the Industrial Freighter by about a third on its own cargo, at the freighter's price. The freighter stays as the mass hauler anyone can fly. GRF v99 - a download, no respec.

• Bulk cargo jets carry the freighter's tonnage at a third more speed, generation for generation.
• Fast jets keep their character and still come out 30 to 40 percent ahead as hold times speed.
• The pricing fault that made a coal jet cost up to three times the freighter is gone.
• Sky cranes untouched.

Read the notes › v0.985 SEPTEMBER 2026

Cargo Takes Wing

Every cargo a truck carries now has its own cargo jet and cargo helicopter, generations I to VII and Mk1 to Mk8, unlocked by the same talent node as the truck. Sixty-two new lines; the fleet grows to 14,534. GRF v98 - a download, no respec.

• Coal, ore, grain, liquids, timber, goods, perishables, valuables and mail, each with a Cargojet and an Airlift on every climate the truck has.
• Locked to one cargo like a specialist truck; the buy menu shows a quarter of the seat-equivalent hold as freight, half as mail. The Airlifts are heavy-lift sky cranes at a purchase and running premium.
• The truck nodes now read as rail, road and air talents and answer an air search.
• Ships already had every cargo I to VII, Mk1 to Mk8; unchanged.

Read the notes › v0.9723 SEPTEMBER 2026

Plant Your Flag

Choose your HQ region by planting the headquarters in each city in turn; holdings pay at your own cargo prices, averaged over the cargoes the industry or town handles. The Rail Baron's platforms are reachable both ways, crowds of Barons spread out, and a poor one gets going. GRF unchanged at v97.

• Towns your HQ has stood in take the reach slots first; the nearest fill the rest. Never move and nothing changes.
• Your talents and research on an industry's cargoes, averaged, multiply its dividends. A town counts what it demands at its size and climate.
• The second rail lane ends on the first lane's approach, so every platform has a way in and out at both ends.
• A pair beside a rival's station costs its score, each Baron ranks with its own jitter, and a survey abandons a taken site.

Read the notes › v0.9712 SEPTEMBER 2026

Two Lanes, End to End

The Rail Baron lays real double-track mainlines, signals them the right way round, queues one train per 20 tiles, and only buys trucks where a road goes. The construction rebate is fixed and every rebate caps at 50% all in. GRF unchanged at v97.

• The second lane goes down right after the first and is checked tile by tile before a train is bought.
• Every arrival lane ends in a path signal; a far-end ladder lets all three platforms run through onto the loop.
• Double tracks open with two trains and queue one more per 20 tiles, holding new routes until paid for.
• Trucks and buses are bought only after the road between their stops is built and verified.
• The construction rebate paid 3.9x what it rebated; fixed. Every rebate now caps at 50% all in - talents, class and research together - research stops selling levels at the cap, and money banked past it comes back.

Read the notes › v0.971 SEPTEMBER 2026

The Tram Takes the Post

Base trams carry general cargo, the passenger tram tows a mail car, monopolies go public, and the AI starts building three-platform stations.

• Cargo and mail trams take goods, mail and food - specialists keep their own cargo.
• The passenger tram tows a small mail car: hybrid as bought, refits back to full seats, never pure mail.
• Monopolies get signs in your colours over the town and every industry, and now wait for your class to lock.
• The AI builds three-platform stations with ladder throats, depot queues, path signals and balloon loops.
• Every AI understands exclusive rights and stays out of towns you hold.

Read the notes › v0.9631 AUGUST 2026

Every Class, Sharpened

All eight classes gain an innate bonus, infrastructure gets far cheaper to hold, and the Heavy Hauler finally earns its keep.

• Pick a class, get a bonus - 30% off your own mode's running costs, or your upkeep, or a bigger loan.
• Rail track down to an eighth, stations and airports halved, monorail and maglev priced separately.
• GRF v96: the Heavy Hauler is 40% faster, cheaper to buy and cheaper to run.
• Research fleet techs cut from 22 to 8, plus three new rebate technologies.

Read the notes › v0.9530 AUGUST 2026

The Company You Keep

Eight new class charters, a town you can own outright, and busy towns that pay everyone in them.

• Eight marquee talents, one per class - price floors, a town monopoly, and its exact opposite.
• Every company serving a town past the first adds +15% output and growth, for all of them.
• Cities grow far larger, and each town lays its streets in its own pattern.
• GRF v95: the fleet crosses 10,950 vehicles, with the missing truck lines and a mail specialisation.

Read the notes › v0.94429 AUGUST 2026

The Climb, Halved

Level 99 costs half the XP it did, and your level has already gone up to match.

• The road to 99 halves: 2,401,000 XP, with the early game untouched (cut again on 30 Aug to 792,330).
• Hard pays 3x XP, Nightmare 6x, Hauler Hell 10x - danger pay that matches the danger.
• Match recaps now break your XP down fully: accrual, records, level before and after.
• !clone now builds up to 99 copies per command, up from 25.

Read the notes › v0.94329 AUGUST 2026

Send in the Clones

Type !clone 20 in chat and the server builds twenty copies of your best vehicle - orders shared, engines running.

• !clone: mass cloning from chat, up to 25 at a time, charged at normal prices.
• Industries and towns now share one holdings curve: 1x to 15x at a full house.
• Research spending is one line per track; the rankings XP estimate matches the real payout again.

Read the notes › v0.94228 AUGUST 2026

A Record of Your Own

Every difficulty charter's best finally reaches its own record book - and station warnings arrive as messages you cannot miss.

• Records nominate per charter: an Easy giant no longer erases a Normal player's best.
• Station-spread warnings are private messages now, held until someone's aboard to read them.
• !hide narrows to record fanfares only; ships and planes take a smaller market footprint.

Read the notes › v0.94128 AUGUST 2026

Steam Ahead

Sign in through Steam, found on any world without the runaround, and a !hide command for the bot’s chatter.

• Steam login beside Discord - tie your career to either account, same !link flow.
• Founding on a new world wins: your old company winds itself up. No more “go !reset first”.
• !hide mutes bot announcements per player - and the record-fanfare repeat bug is fixed.

Read the notes › v0.9428 AUGUST 2026

Cheap Flights

Every aircraft in the game is 30% cheaper to buy and to run - and tropic lumber mills finally work.

• All 41 vanilla aircraft, every specialist and every Mk2–Mk8 tier: −30% purchase and running.
• Lumber mills get their forest replanted as you develop them - up to ~200t/month, from a starved 45.
• Inflation is anchored to 1920, the game’s own year zero - each world carries its true era.

Read the notes › v0.93227 AUGUST 2026

Money in the Right Decade

Holdings were paying 1920 money on every world. Now they pay in the era you are in.

• Holdings track each world’s era - a 2020 map paid a third of what it should.
• The difficulty levy had been switching itself off for the last 19 months of every session.
• 22 new research tracks: a market and a cost track for every vehicle type.
• Records now reward the charter you set them on; new charter section in the guide.

Read the notes › v0.93125 AUGUST 2026

The Long Climb

The late levels get a real climb - your XP is kept, your level is re-read.

• Level 99 now costs 20x the XP; the early game is untouched.
• XP is untouched; levels are recalculated against the new curve, so most came down.
• New "Clear to 0" button on the talent board, with a warning that means it.
• Class Leaders strip fixed; the welcome sign finally counts the real fleet.

Read the notes › v0.9322 AUGUST 2026

Free Refits and the High Seas

Every refit in the game is free - and the fleet gets its sea legs sorted.

• Refitting costs nothing, vanilla included - and vanilla stock gains auto-refit.
• Canal boats hold half speed at sea (up from a quarter), marked on the board tooltips.
• "Barge" means canal now: Battery, Grain and Timber Barges become Freighters.
• Three new sea ships: tropic Timber Freighter, Fizzy Reefer, Rock Candy Cutter.
• Records need a stakeholder, name their holder - and every industry type has an output record.
• Player profiles compare all eight classes: ranks, averages, leaders.

Read the notes › v0.92321 AUGUST 2026

Service Is the Money

Every charter earns at full rates - and holdings pay on a service slider.

• Difficulty is pure cost now: 3x/6x/10x running + infrastructure, full earning rates everywhere.
• Town holdings scale 1x at 10% serviced up to 20x at 100%; industries up to 10x.
• Feeding a town's sinks multiplies its dividends - power + water + bank = x4.
• Unserved towns grow at 30% - a real penalty again.

Read the notes › v0.92220 AUGUST 2026

Every Class Is a Career

XP and levels are per class - play all eight to master all eight.

• Each class levels separately; XP goes to the class your company played.
• Every class keeps its own talent tree - autopilot until you save yours.
• Switching class destroys nothing; achievement points benefit every class.
• The players page shows your highest class. Records untouched.
• The Company Setup page shows each class's level, budget and tree.

Read the notes › v0.92118 AUGUST 2026

Discounts & Classes

Mk7 and Mk8 arrive, and every discount becomes a share of what you actually pay.

• Mk6, Mk7 and Mk8 are class-exclusive — talents alone reach Mk5.
• Cost relief removes 60% of your operating costs on any charter, not flat points.
• Infrastructure relief, purchase and construction rebates all capped at 60%.
• A class is worth +30% on its speciality instead of double.
• Your score is measured against the best ever recorded on that world.

Read the notes › v0.9216 AUGUST 2026

Wagons & Industry

Rail gets rolling stock of its own, and industry output is rebuilt.

• Thirty specialist wagons, one per cargo. Half again the capacity for twice the price.
• Development multiplies your industry output instead of capping out early.
• The industry window tells you when you have hit the ceiling.
• Hard, Nightmare and Hell cost 3x, 6x and 10x to run. Easy and Normal untouched.
• Research shows the total you have invested in every track.

Read the notes › v0.9116 AUGUST 2026

Talents, Classes & Industry

The biggest balance pass since talents shipped.

• Achievements are challenges now, each worth a talent point. Ceiling raised to 178.
• Every class starts with 3 of its signature power, and crowns pay a permanent percentage.
• The Mk ladder reaches Mk8, reachable only through your vehicle class.
• Holdings scale with your stakes instead of paying a flat share.
• New Hopper Tram, Hoverliner, four rail specialists and five ship lines.

Read the notes ›