Facilities are buildings you own at company level. They do not run anywhere and they do not appear on the map — what they do is make everything else cheaper. Each one has five levels, and each level costs half again as much as the one before it.
| Facility | What it does | Per level | Level 1 costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy depot | Doubles your energy storage capacity | ×2 capacity | $4,000,000 |
| Depot shed | Cuts the time inspections and overhauls take | 1.5% | $6,000,000 |
| Training centre | Cuts crew cost on every departure | 3% | $5,000,000 |
| Catering unit | Cuts passenger service cost per passenger | 3% | $3,000,000 |
| Lounge | Perceived service, for premium and loyal travellers only | +4 | $7,000,000 |
| Cargo terminal | Lets you carry perishables at all, and cuts handling | 2% | $5,000,000 |
| Revenue desk | Brackets the profit-maximising fare on the price band | 5% | $5,000,000 |
The depot does not discount the energy itself — it buys you room to time the market; see Energy and emissions. The depot shed does not discount the check's price — it shortens the stay, and in the timetable era that is what it is worth: less time out of service is departures you do not miss, felt most on the overhaul's long visit. The other discounts are visible in the forecast on your line cards — the simulator uses exactly the same numbers the server does, so what you are shown is what you get.
Every service you settle adds half a percentage point of wear to all your facilities. This is the part that makes them a decision rather than a purchase.
Maintenance costs 8% of what that level cost to build and resets wear to zero immediately. There is no downtime — the facility keeps working while the work is done.
The practical consequence: a large railway settling hundreds of departures wears its facilities down fast and has to budget for upkeep. A small one can build a depot and forget about it for a long time. Neither is wrong, but ignoring the condition bar is how a discount quietly turns into nothing.
There is no single answer, and that is deliberate. Energy is the biggest single line in most cost breakdowns, so the depot pays back soonest for a busy fleet — not as a rebate, but as the freedom to buy at dips instead of at whatever the price is today. If your trains are old or heavily used, the workshop earns its keep, because shorter stays mean fewer departures lost to maintenance. Catering only matters when you are carrying a lot of passengers; on thin lines it is close to noise.
Look at your own cost breakdown on a line card before spending. The game will not tell you which one is right for your network, and that is the point.
Start your railway