How to Play Ticket to Ride: Turns, Routes, and Scoring

Ticket to Ride, designed by Alan R. Moon and published by Days of Wonder, is quick to learn, but a few small rules about Locomotive cards, double routes, and the final round are easy to get wrong. This guide walks through the game in the order you will need it, using the current English rulebook that Days of Wonder links from its site, and it flags the setup differences from the older 2015 printing.

The goal

The rulebook describes the game as players competing "to connect different cities by claiming railway routes on the colorful map." The winner is the player with the most points, and points come from three places:

1. claiming routes between neighboring cities,
2. completing the city-to-city connections on your Destination Tickets, and
3. holding the Longest Continuous Path at the end.

There is one way to lose points: any Destination Ticket you kept but did not complete is subtracted from your score.

Setup in four moves

1. Each player takes a set of colored plastic trains and the matching scoring marker, which starts on the 0 spot of the scoring track.
2. Deal 4 Train Car cards to each player, then turn 5 cards from the deck face up beside the board.
3. Place the Longest Path Bonus card next to the board.
4. Deal 4 Destination Tickets to each player. Everyone must keep at least 2 and may keep more. Returned tickets are shuffled and placed at the bottom of the ticket deck, and kept tickets stay secret until the end.

Edition note: the 2015 printing deals 3 tickets instead of 4 (still keep at least 2) and says the most experienced traveler goes first. The current rulebook lets you choose the first player any way you like. Play continues clockwise in both.

Your turn: exactly one of three actions

On each turn you must do one, and only one, of these.

Draw Train Car cards. Take 2 cards. Each can be one of the 5 face-up cards or the top card of the deck. When you take a face-up card, refill that slot right away.

Claim a route. Play a set of cards that matches the route's color and length, then place one of your trains on each space. Gray routes can be paid with any single color. You may claim only one route per turn, and you never have to connect it to your other routes.

Draw Destination Tickets. Draw 3 tickets and keep at least 1. You can only return tickets you just drew, never ones already in your hand.

The locomotive rules everyone forgets

Locomotives are wild and can join any set. The catches are all about drawing them:

• If you take a face-up Locomotive, it is your whole draw for the turn. You get 1 card instead of 2.
• If your first draw reveals a replacement Locomotive, you cannot take it as your second card.
• A Locomotive drawn blind from the top of the deck counts as a single card, so you still get your second draw.
• If 3 of the 5 face-up cards are ever Locomotives, discard all 5 and deal 5 new ones.

There is no hand limit, so it is legal to hoard cards.

Double routes

Some cities are joined by two parallel routes. One player cannot claim both. In 2 or 3 player games, the rulebook allows only one of the pair to be used: once someone claims either side, the other is closed.

How routes score

Points are recorded the moment you claim a route, using the rulebook's route scoring table. The last column is a simple division, added here to show why long routes are worth chasing.

Route length	Points	Points per train
1	1	1.00
2	2	1.00
3	4	1.33
4	7	1.75
5	10	2.00
6	15	2.50

A 6-space route earns 15 points, while six separate 1-space routes would earn only 6. For example, a player who claims routes of length 3, 4, 6, and 2 scores 4 + 7 + 15 + 2, which is 28 points from routes alone.

How the game ends

When any player finishes a turn with 0, 1, or 2 trains left, every player, including that player, gets one final turn. Then the game ends. Many groups forget that the triggering player also gets a last turn.

Final scoring

1. Recount route points to catch tracking mistakes, which the rulebook suggests.
2. Reveal all Destination Tickets. Add the value of each one you completed and subtract the value of each one you did not.
3. Award the Longest Continuous Path bonus of 10 points. Only one color of trains counts, the path can loop and revisit cities, but no single train may be counted twice. If players tie, each tied player gets the full 10.

The highest total wins. If players tie, the one who completed more Destination Tickets wins. If still tied, the tied player holding the Longest Continuous Path card wins, and otherwise the tied players share the victory.

A five-minute teaching order

1. Goal: most points from routes, tickets, and the longest path.
2. Your turn: draw 2 cards, claim 1 route, or draw tickets. Only one.
3. Locomotives: wild, but a face-up one uses your whole draw.
4. Long routes score far more per train, so plan toward them.
5. Unfinished tickets cost you points, so do not keep too many late.
6. Two trains or fewer left triggers one last turn for everyone.

Key takeaways

• Each turn is exactly one action: draw Train Car cards, claim one route, or draw Destination Tickets.
• Taking a face-up Locomotive ends your draw; a blind-drawn Locomotive counts as one normal card.
• Route points jump with length, from 1 point for 1 train to 15 points for 6 trains.
• Uncompleted Destination Tickets are subtracted at the end, so keeping a ticket is a real risk.
• The game ends after one final round once anyone has 2 or fewer trains left, and the Longest Continuous Path adds 10 points.