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Short Line: the Monopoly railroad explained
What Short Line is worth, how railroad rent scales from 25 to 200, and why holding all four matters.
Play KirayaOne of four identical railroads
Short Line is one of the four railroads on the classic board, alongside Reading Railroad, Pennsylvania Railroad and B&O Railroad. It sits on the last side of the board, between the last Chance space and the final stretch. All four cost the same, pay the same and are interchangeable in every way except position: nothing about Short Line is individually stronger or weaker than the other three.
Rent depends on how many you hold, not on which
| Railroads owned by one player | Rent charged |
|---|---|
| 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 50 |
| 3 | 100 |
| 4 | 200 |
Each railroad costs 200 and mortgages for 100. You cannot build houses or a hotel on a railroad, so the rent ladder above is the only way its income grows, and the only lever is collecting more of them. A mortgaged railroad does not count toward the total.
Why the fourth one is worth overpaying for
Going from three railroads to four doubles your railroad income in a single trade. Several Chance cards also send the drawing player to the nearest railroad and, in most printings, charge double the usual rent when the railroad is owned. That makes a complete set of four quietly reliable: it never needs building money, it cannot be mortgaged out from under you by a colour-group rival, and it keeps earning while you save cash for houses elsewhere.
Transit deeds in Kiraya
Kiraya's maps use the same mechanism under their own names. World Tour has four airports and Harborline has four piers. They start at 25 and double for each additional one the same owner holds, reaching 200 for all four, and like railroads they take no buildings. A mortgaged transit deed stops counting toward the total, exactly as you would expect.