These Bridges Nearly Bankrupted My German Empire | Transport Fever 2 | Episode 3

Описание: Welcome back to Episode 3 of our Transport Fever 2 Germany playthrough, where hard mode is starting to bite hard.

In this episode, everything hinges on fuel and steel. We push our crude oil and refined oil network to its limits, balance multi-directional cargo flows, and discover just how expensive German infrastructure can be in the early game. Bridges alone cost millions, and every misstep hurts when loans are already maxed out.

The refined oil line becomes the financial backbone of the entire company;funding ambitious bridge crossings, station rebuilds, and the long-term dream of an east–west railway connecting Hamburg to Berlin. Along the way, I wrestle with station bottlenecks, signal chaos, accidental network breakages, and the harsh reality of early steam-era capacity limits.

We also take the first real steps toward a machines supply chain, moving steel west–east and planks back the other way to keep trains profitable in both directions, a critical strategy in hard mode.

If you enjoy problem solving, realistic logistics, and watching a transport network barely survive its own ambition, this episode is for you.

⏱️ Rough Chapters

00:00 – Episode recap & the financial problem
03:00 – Diagnosing crude oil and refined oil bottlenecks
07:00 – Adding trains, platforms & signal fixes
12:00 – Station rebuilds (and mild panic)
18:00 – The refined oil line becomes the money maker
23:00 – Bridge costs spiral out of control 💸
27:00 – First major river crossings completed
32:00 – Connecting steel to machines production
38:00 – Fixing broken links & restoring demand
44:00 – Expanding plank supply by ship
52:00 – Squeezing every unit of capacity from ships & trains
59:00 – Funding the east–west vision
1:04:00 – Wrapping up & future plans for Berlin

💬 Join the Discussion

Should we prioritise Berlin, Hamburg, or the Ruhr next?
And what would you have done differently with these bridge costs?