In this issue of GiocAreA we talk diffusely of TICKET TO RIDE (TTR), the last train game by Alan R. Moon.
As Pietro Cremona reminds us in the cover article, some months ago a new version of the game, called TICKET TO RIDE EUROPE (TTRE), has been published. It preserves the main mechanics of the original game integrating them with new clever ideas and with a new board map.
Personally I prefer this last edition, even because, as a good European, I feel myself more comfortable on a map that I know, and that has Italy too (with Palermo a bit too shifted...). After the first plays a question arose: would it be possible to integrate some or all the new rules of the game in the first and original TICKET TO RIDE?
Let’s try to think about it...

TTRE: drawing the first tickets
The first difference of TTRE rules is the introduction of two types of tickets: the “short” and the “long” ones (these latter ones connect two cities very far one from the other). At the beginning of the game each player receives three short tickets and a long one, taken from a separated deck of six.
The player must keep at least two tickets: she will not be able to draw other long tickets during the game.
How to do this in TTR?
All the tickets with more than 15 points are considered “long” (from the 16 points of LA-Chicago to the 22 points of Seattle-NY). There are seven “long” tickets. Give two short tickets and one of these long ones to each player: each player will have to keep at least two tickets. Then, discard all the long tickets that have not been chosen.

TTRE: Ferries
The ferries are special grey lines that connect two cities separated by the sea on the TTRE map. To complete that line, each space with the locomotive symbol must be filled precisely with a locomotive card.
Unfortunately the American map has no lines on the sea, so we can only think to some boat trips around the coasts…
How to do this in TTR?
Just imagine grey lines on the external perimeter of the board (as the ones next to Seattle, Winnipeg, Montreal…) connected by ferries. In each of these lines, when it is the moment to lay down your trains, imagine that one of the spaces contains one locomotive…
That is, for example, each of the two parallel lines between Seattle and Vancouver needs a locomotive, while it will be necessary only one locomotive with one train to pass from Raleigh to Charleston.

TTRE: Tunnels
When in TTRE a line is built inside a tunnel, it is never known how much time the works will last! The one who decides to build a tunnel has to turn face up three cards from the deck. For each card that matches the colour of the line, an additional train card is needed (if the player can and wants still to build!).
The wild cards, as they can be considered cards of any colour, increase the “cost” of the tunnel…
How to do this in TTR?
Along any line with two parallel railroads, consider the first of them as a tunnel. The second railroad, instead, will exploit the work already done before, and it will not change its cost.

TTRE: stations
The stations are probably the best novelty in the newer game.
A station played in an empty city allows her owner to use one (and only one) of the lines of the other players that start from that city, when calculating the points.
How to do this in TTR?
...You have to loot another game to find three stations for each of the five colours of the players.
At this point, during the development of the game it will be possible to spend one turn to build a new station. The first built station does cost one train card, the second one two cards (of the same colour), the third one three cards (of the same colour).
NOTE: each unused station gives you four bonus points at the end of the game, so make a good use of them!

The remainder of the rules of the first TTR does not change substantially. Obviously, the hybrid derived from them is certainly neither the best game in the world nor the more balanced one, because the author of the game has created the map of TTRE with the new introduced rules always to his mind.
And now, hurry up! Begin to shuffle the rules of TRANSAMERICA and TICKET TO RIDE. That is, try to modify TTR so as the built lines would not be anymore the lines of only one player, but consider instead all of them in common (maybe, only if connected to a player’s station…).
A totally new train of thoughts starts…