The rules
Reach the city before the deadline.
RailPass is played on the real European rail network: published operator timetables from more than thirty national feeds, covering around 28,000 stations from Penzance to Bucharest. Nothing is invented. The departure boards are the ones the operators publish, the night trains are the ones that actually run, and missing the last connection strands you exactly as it would in life.
- One journey a day. You wake up at a real station somewhere in Europe with a destination city and a deadline. Everyone plays the same journey each day.
- The boards are real. Every departure is a genuine service with real times, operators and calling points. Click a train to see everywhere it stops.
- Alight anywhere. You are not buying a ticket to the end of the line. Any stop on the train is a place you can get off, and the map redraws around wherever you land.
- Time is the only budget. There are no fares. Waiting three hours for a faster train is a real decision, and the last train of the night is a real deadline.
- Three challenges pay best. Every day sets three, drawn from a pool: ride a night train, use three operators, stop at five stations. Sixty of the hundred points live here, not in speed.
- Arrive before the deadline. Every day is proven solvable before it is published, so a route always exists. Finding a better one than the solver did is the game.
A worked example
You wake up in Narvik, above the Arctic Circle, and the destination is Stockholm. The board shows a handful of departures a day, so the first call makes itself: the iron-ore line east toward Boden.
At Boden the main line south opens up. A daytime intercity would get you there, but the sleeper leaves later, covers the distance overnight, and ticks the day's night-train challenge while you rest. You route the last leg through a quiet regional junction instead of the main line, collect the obscurity points, and arrive with ninety minutes to spare - two of the day's three challenges done, and a reason to hunt a cleverer route tomorrow.
Scoring
Sixty for challenges, twenty-five for time, fifteen for obscurity.
A hundred points. The three challenges carry sixty, so the fastest route is rarely the best one. Time is scored against the route the solver proved rather than a guess, so matching it earns full marks and beating it is possible. Obscurity rewards routing through quiet stations, which is deliberately at odds with speed: the scoring is built so that you have to choose.
Strategy
Seven habits of high scores.
- Plan backwards from the destination. Knowing which main lines feed the target city tells you which intermediate hubs are actually worth reaching.
- Read the whole calling list before boarding. The best move is often to leave a train early at a junction rather than ride it to its terminus.
- Respect branch lines. A rural line with four trains a day can strand you for hours - check the return frequency before you commit to a detour.
- Spend the challenges early. Weaving in the third operator or the extra stops is cheap at the start of the day and expensive near the deadline.
- Use the night train as a bridge, not a bonus. A sleeper covers ground while the clock runs anyway, so it can turn an impossible distance into a comfortable one.
- Check the crosstown links. In cities with several terminals, the walk or metro link at the top of the board is sometimes the only way to reach the line you need.
- Chase obscurity only when you are safe. The fifteen obscurity points reward quiet stations, but they are worth nothing if the deadline passes.
Questions
RailPass FAQ.
What is the goal in RailPass?
Reach the day's destination city before the deadline, starting from wherever the game wakes you up. Every departure on the board is a real train from published operator timetables, so the route you build is one you could ride.
Is the timetable real?
Yes. Every departure comes from published operator timetables, gathered from more than thirty national rail feeds covering around 28,000 stations. The times, the operators, the calling points and the night trains are the real ones, played on a canonical Tuesday.
What are the three challenges?
Each day sets three challenges drawn from a wider pool: ride a night train, ride two high-speed trains, use three different operators, stop at five or more stations, ride only regional trains, and more. Together they are worth sixty of the hundred points, so they matter more than raw speed, and they are what push you off the obvious main line.
Is every day actually possible?
Yes, and that is checked before the day is published. A journey is only released once a solver has found a real route that reaches the destination inside the deadline while satisfying all three challenges. Days solvable in one or two trains are rejected as too easy.
What happens if I miss the last train?
The same thing that happens in life: you are stranded. The clock is the only budget in the game, so a connection you cannot make is a route you cannot take, and the day ends when the deadline passes.
Can I walk between stations in a city?
In a few cities, yes. Where two big stations are linked in reality by a walk, a metro or an RER rather than by a train, that link appears at the top of the departure board with its real duration. Crossing town is not a train, so it never counts toward the train or operator challenges.
Do night trains help?
Often, yes. A sleeper covers ground while the clock runs anyway, so an overnight leg can turn an impossible distance into a comfortable one. On longer journeys the proven route usually includes one, and riding one also completes a challenge.
How is the score calculated?
Out of a hundred: sixty points for the three challenges, twenty-five for time and fifteen for obscurity. Time is measured against the route the solver proved rather than a guess, so matching it scores full marks and beating it is possible. Obscurity rewards routing through quiet stations instead of the obvious main line.
Is there a new RailPass every day?
Yes. One journey per day, the same start and destination for every player, refreshing at midnight Eastern. Past days are playable from the archive.
Is RailPass free?
Yes. RailPass is free to play in your browser with no account and no download.