Devlog · 7 October 2026

Proper trains, and railway bridges

Railways have been in Blockline since launch, but the trains on them were never quite convincing: a few carriages floating along with gaps between them, shuttling from one station to the next. This update rebuilds them from the rails up, and adds a proper way to take a line across water.

Four-car multiple units

Each train is now a four-car multiple unit with a driving cab at each end. Every carriage is a solid body with a window band, doors, bogies and equipment on the roof, and the cars are joined by gangway bellows rather than separated by gaps. Each carriage follows its own stretch of track, so a train bends naturally round curves instead of sliding through them as one rigid block. The track itself now sits on the ground layer, so rails no longer draw over the top of a passing train.

Both cab cars carry a pantograph, so a set looks the same whichever way it is travelling.

Trains that run the whole line

Previously a train simply shuttled between stations. Now every rail network with at least two train stations gets a train that tours all of its track. On a loop it goes round and round; on a line it runs right to the end; on a branch that is long enough it goes up and back. At a dead end the whole set reverses, with the rear cab leading, rather than folding back through itself. Trains brake as they come into a station, wait at the platform and then pull away.

This matters beyond looks. The level crossings added in the first week time their barriers from the train's actual route, so the barriers come down when a train really is approaching. The barrier timing is checked by automated tests that confirm no car is ever on a crossing at the same time as a train.

Railway bridges

Rail lines can now cross rivers, lakes and sea inlets. The railway bridge is a steel through-truss span on a stone pier, built one tile at a time. Trains climb onto the deck and run between the girders. A bridge costs more than ordinary track, because you are paying for the steelwork and the pier, and it has its own upkeep. Bulldozing a span hands the tile back to the water.

At first the only way to build one was to drag train track out over water, which worked but which hardly anyone would discover. So the railway bridge became its own tool in the Transport menu, under Transit, unlocked alongside train track in A town that pays its way. Dragging track over water still works and builds exactly the same bridge at the same price, so use whichever you find more natural. The tool refuses to place a bridge anywhere other than on water.

Why bother?

Blockline's maps have rivers, lakes and coastline, and until now a railway had to go the long way round them or not at all. Bridges open up layouts that were simply impossible before, such as a line along the coast that hops across an estuary, or a commuter link straight across the river to the next district. Combined with trains that run the whole line, a railway now behaves the way you would expect it to.

The transport guide covers rail alongside roads, buses and the subway.