Very Hard Mode In Transport Fever 3

I’ll start with this simple picture above…

This covers most of what you’ll need, since Hard Mode and Very Hard Mode are mostly reverse engineering in terms of gameplay. The game behaves differently because bigger, faster vehicles have higher maintenance costs in terms of power and speed.
The old way, which is Normal Mode, is that faster delivery speed equals faster town growth, which is the fast way to Tycoon level. But this level gets far less interesting for Hard and Very Hard modes.

Hard and Very Hard are simply a slower gameplay to Tycoon level, where a town eventually grows into a Large Metropolis.
If you’re gonna use trains for that, you’ll have to use old trains or low-speed trains. Those will be lost unless you use a mod that gives you achievements anyhow, so you can keep the early-1900s trains accessible. Some electric locomotives will have utterly sick maintenance costs around 1940+.
Put those old trains on a track that covers most of the cargo any town needs. More tracks and stations with transfers between equals to heavy upkeep costs. You may also use mods that give the stations a better pickup/unloading range (the circle around the station). Same goes for maintenance buildings. Some of this is to keep pollution away from towns, but yes, spawning factories will affect a district’s pollution level. But they help keep noise levels low.

Landmark mods can also speed boost slow, low-maintenance trains. You can choose whether to build those landmarks or just place them. The mod I’m using is making the landmarks buildable in every district where I have train tracks.

If you don’t wanna use any mods at all, I guess your only option is to stick to air and water transport. Too many stations reach insane upkeep levels later on. You might wanna make a map in the map editor with water channels/huge lakes leading to pre-placed towns. The downside, no matter what you do, is that the pollution levels will be detected for even spawned factories inside a district, which gives a red pollution reputation mark. That alone isn’t a big problem as long as the pollution isn’t near citizens’ homes. Later on, pollution levels may increase if private car traffic inside a town grows, or if traffic to/from stations increases. This is where underground TRAM routes are essential, also with low-maintenance trams. Don’t think about speed. Put more trams of the same type on the same line. Look for some tram station mods that have other underground stations.

The video below from HoneyBadger Gaming on YouTube has some background information, especially on how Transport Fever 3 feels different on Hard and Very Hard.

Summary (AI-generated Grammarly)

In Transport Fever 3’s Hard and Very Hard modes, rapid expansion is less effective because faster, more powerful vehicles have much higher maintenance costs. The recommended strategy is to prioritize low-speed, low-maintenance trains and trams, minimize stations and transfers, and build routes that handle multiple cargo needs.

Mods can help by retaining older trains, expanding station coverage, improving achievements, and boosting vehicles through landmarks. Without mods, air and water transport may be more economical. Pollution, noise, private-car traffic, and station congestion remain important concerns, making underground tram networks especially useful as cities grow.