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50 free Ticket to Ride trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Ticket to Ride is the railway game that pulled millions of people into modern board gaming. Alan R. Moon's design, first published in 2004, fits its rules on a train ticket: draw cards, claim a route, or take more destination tickets. Two decades on it has sold more than 20 million copies in 33 languages, and its square box became the unofficial size standard for the hobby. These 50 questions run through the whole family. The original 1910 map and its Spiel des Jahres win, the Europe edition's tunnels and stations, the collectable Märklin box, Switzerland, the Nordic Countries, Rails and Sails, and the Legacy campaign co-designed with the Pandemic team. There are Cities titles with taxis, buses, cable cars and horse-drawn carts, the Map Collection volumes from Asia to Iberia, the lockdown-era Stay at Home map, the Alvin and Dexter monsters, the pink trains for breast cancer research, and the April Fools' Moon map for twelve astronauts. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a game-night tiebreaker.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who designed the original Ticket to Ride?
Alan R. Moon
He is considered one of the foremost designers of German-style board games, and many of his titles riff on the travelling salesman problem.
Q 02Which publisher released the first Ticket to Ride game?
Days of Wonder
The publisher, founded in 2002, had put out Gang of Four as its first game two years earlier.
Q 03In what year was the first Ticket to Ride released?
2004
The very first sale was 600 units shipped to a German distributor on 27 February 2004.
Q 04What natural sight inspired the game's design?
Ocean waves
The designer saw them on a walk while mulling over an unsuccessful session of a complex war game.
Q 05Which major German award did Ticket to Ride win in 2004?
Spiel des Jahres
It was the designer's second win of the award; the game has since collected almost two dozen other prizes worldwide.
Q 06How many bonus points does the Longest Road award in the standard rules?
10
Some versions swap it for a Globetrotter bonus, and a few drop the bonus entirely.
Q 07The standard game ends once a player's remaining trains fall below what number?
Three
Every player then gets one more turn before the hidden destination tickets are revealed.
Q 08How many train car cards are players usually dealt at the start?
Four
France deals eight, the Cities versions two, and Rails and Sails adds seven ship cards.
Q 09What box dimensions became known as "standard TtR size"?
30 cm x 30 cm x 8 cm
The game's popularity helped make the square box a norm for medium-size titles across the hobby.
Q 10By early 2026, roughly how many copies of Ticket to Ride had been sold worldwide?
Over 20 million
It reached 250,000 copies within nine months of its 2004 release and by 2026 was billed as the world's best-selling train game.
Q 11The original board depicts the United States and southern Canada in which year?
1910
The companion USA 1910 expansion later reprinted the cards in a larger format and added 35 tickets.
Q 12Ticket to Ride: Europe is based on a map from which year?
1912
Nicknamed the "gamer's version", it added ferries, tunnels and stations to the original formula.
Q 13Which piece in the Europe edition lets you use a route owned by another player?
Stations
Tunnel routes in the same edition can demand extra cards, and ferries require locomotive cards.
Q 14Which German model-railway company lent its name to a 2006 edition?
Q 21Which two designers joined Moon on Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West?
Rob Daviau and Matt Leacock
Between them they had created Pandemic and Pandemic Legacy before tackling the railway campaign.
Q 22How many games make up the Legends of the West campaign?
12
Players push west across 19th-century America, unlocking jigsaw board pieces as they go.
Q 23How many jigsaw frontier boards does the Legacy edition contain?
13
Only five of them form the starting board; the rest are unlocked over the campaign.
Märklin
Every transport card in that edition shows a different carriage from the company's rolling stock.
Q 15The Märklin +4 locomotive card only works on routes needing more than how many trains?
Four
The same edition added passengers who ride along routes to collect merchandise tokens.
Q 16Which map was the designer's stated favourite for 17 years?
Switzerland
It was first available inside the 2006 PC game before getting a boxed release in 2007.
Q 17Which 2024 map did the designer say had replaced his long-time favourite?
Iberia
The map started life as an unofficial fan expansion in 2015 and has no longest-road bonus.
Q 18Besides Scandinavia, the Nordic Countries board includes cities in which two countries?
Estonia and Russia
The 2022 Northern Lights edition widened the map further to the Baltic states and Poland.
Q 19Rails and Sails has a world map on one side and which region on the other?
The Great Lakes
Its board is the largest in the series and games run 90 to 120 minutes.
Q 20How many harbour pieces does each player get in Rails and Sails?
Three
Players also pick their own mix of ships and trains at the start, a rule added to balance the double ship cards.
Q 24How much larger was the newly illustrated map in the 10th anniversary edition?
50%
The edition also shipped its five train sets in metal boxes and bundled the USA 1910 expansion.
Q 25The First Journey line is designed for children from what age?
6
Games last 10 to 30 minutes on a smaller board with bigger pieces.
Q 26What replaces trains as the playing pieces in Ticket to Ride: New York?
Taxis
The express version is set on a 1960s map and scores bonus points for routes into tourist attractions.
Q 27The New York edition's map depicts the city in which decade?
1960s
It was the first Cities title, released in the US exclusively through Target in July 2018.
Q 28Which vehicle serves as the playing piece in the London edition?
Buses
Scoring rewards fully connecting districts, and the transport cards nod to British songs, films and TV.
Q 29The London edition is based on a map of the city in which decade?
1970s
It was sold in the US exclusively through Walmart when it arrived in July 2019.
Q 30Which pieces replace trains in the San Francisco edition?
Cable cars
Players collect cardboard tourist tokens for the city's landmarks dotted around the board.