Transport Fever 3 Town Growth: Levels, XP and Ratings

By Tobias Lindqvist · Updated October 1, 2026

How town growth works now

Town growth in Transport Fever 3 is driven by experience points. Every passenger or cargo item that reaches its final destination in a town earns raw XP, and the town levels up when it collects enough. The developers designed it this way so that growth is tied directly to meeting a town’s needs and is easier to read than in earlier games.

There are 18 levels. The developers’ tycoon dev blog says the smallest settlements, under 100 residents, are small hamlets.

According to the official manual, reaching level 2 takes 1,000 XP in total, and every later level-up needs 1.5 times the XP of the one before. That makes the step to level 3 cost 1,500 XP and the step to level 4 cost 2,250 XP. Each new level triggers a celebration.

Where the XP comes from

Two takeaways. Intercity passengers are worth up to four times as much as local trips, which rewards longer routes. And complex goods, the ones with more industries in their production chain, earn more per item; the dev blog frames this as a choice between many simple goods or fewer complex ones.

Final XP is raw XP multiplied by a growth multiplier, which depends on the town’s Supplies and Authority ratings. Your headquarters adds to that multiplier: the bonus starts at 5% and grows as you expand the building, and the developers say it applies to the nearest town.

The Supplies rating

Supplies is the average of two parts:

• Passenger supplies measures how many residents use public transport. A line usage of 50% already gives the maximum.
• Cargo supplies takes the best-supplied district that has cargo demands.

Towns start with one cargo demand in the commercial district and one in the industrial district, then add more as they level up:

Complex cargo is needed in smaller yearly amounts. This is why players notice their supply rate dropping as a town grows: it simply wants more, and new types. The town window’s Supplies tab shows where passengers travel and which suppliers feed each demand. See our cargo list for which industry makes what.

The Authority rating and the six ratings

Authority is set by the lowest of six ratings, so improving your weakest one has the biggest effect. The tycoon dev blog calls the passenger rating Satisfaction; the manual calls it Happiness.

Late cargo still pays full income, but it pulls the Delivery rating down. Noise only matters in residential areas, while the dev blog says pollution counts across the whole municipal area, so you cannot simply build around a town. The free game settings let you change each rating’s sensitivity or switch reputation off entirely.

The three districts

Every town has three districts, shown in the land use layer:

• Residential (green): where people live. No cargo demand, but residents tend to drive if no stop is nearby, and this district is sensitive to noise.
• Commercial (blue): shops and leisure. Every building needs cargo; noise does not bother it.
• Industrial (yellow): the town’s jobs. Also needs cargo and also ignores noise.

Districts can grow at different speeds depending on their supply ratings, and a commercial or industrial building with a high supply rate is more likely to level up.

A growth checklist

1. Serve every part of town with stops so residents can reach your lines.
2. Run intercity passenger lines for the higher XP per trip.
3. Supply the town’s current cargo demands, and watch for new ones at levels 5, 7, 9 and 11.
4. Find the lowest rating in the town window and fix that one first.
5. Keep your headquarters in your main growth town and expand it as ranks unlock.

How big can towns get? One launch tips video showed towns past 12,000 residents, and its creator found around 40,000 people across the whole map was where his PC stayed smooth. The developers have said late-game slowdown depends on your hardware and map size; see our performance guide. For town data, visit the towns page, and to fund all of this, read how to make money.