Interchange

Interchange is a transport tycoon game set in the UK. You build train lines and open flights between 44 real cities, and try to get people out of their cars.

Every trip is a choice. Someone going from Leeds to London compares your train with driving: how long it takes, what it costs, how long they'll wait for the next one and whether they'll get a seat. Get it right and they travel with you. Get it wrong and they drive.

Trains are good for short and medium trips and planes are better for long ones. High-speed rail costs a lot to build, but it can win back the trips in between.

What you do

• Click two cities to build a line
• Find out where people want to go. Hover over a city to see its busiest trips, or check the list of big flows you don't serve yet
• Add trains when lines fill up. Rush hour matters, so a line with spare seats at lunchtime can still be packed at 8am
• Set fares. Charge too much and people drive instead
• Upgrade lines to high-speed, open air routes and let people change between lines
• Deal with strikes, storms, fuel prices, big events and new motorways
• Borrow to grow, but you can't stay in the red for long

The aim is to build a company worth £1bn.

Simple or Advanced

Simple keeps things quick. Each line runs between two cities, and you start with London to Birmingham and £250m.

Advanced gives you a blank map and £550m. You draw routes with several stops, run express trains that skip stations, share track between lines, pick your own trains and planes, and keep an eye on delays.

Real places, real numbers

The cities, populations and airports are all real. Populations come from the EU Joint Research Centre's 2025 urban centre data, with official figures from the ONS and National Records of Scotland for a few smaller towns. The airports are real ones with scheduled flights, and the coastline comes from Natural Earth map data. How many people want to travel between two cities is worked out from their populations and the distance between them.

Demo and playtest

This is a free demo and the game is still in development. You get the whole UK and both modes. France, Germany & Benelux and Iberia are planned for the full game.

If you play it, I'd love to hear what you think. The Feedback button (at the bottom of the sidebar) in the game sends me a report with your game details, and it can include your save so I can see exactly what happened. If the game crashes, it'll offer to send one too.

Tips

• Chrome, Edge or Firefox work best. Safari might not keep your saves on itch.
• The game saves itself every in-game week. Save or load → Download this game keeps a copy on your computer.
• Keys: 1–4 change tool, Space pauses, D opens the dashboard, / finds a city.

Credits

City populations: GHS Urban Centre Database 2025, © European Union, Joint Research Centre (CC BY 4.0). Inverness, Perth and Penzance: National Records of Scotland and Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0). Airports: OurAirports. Coastline and borders: Natural Earth. Fonts: Hanken Grotesk and IBM Plex Mono (SIL Open Font License).