How to cut your costs to your railroad by doing the following. Locate the costs.lua via the folders below;

Steam/Steamapps/Common/Train Fever/res/config/costs.lua

Change from this; (Don’t forget to save the file, I used NOTEPAD coz works fine with that.)

function data()
return {
— per m^3
terrainRaise = 6.0,
terrainLower = 7.0,

railroadTrack = 50.0,    — per m
railroadHighSpeedTrack = 80.0,  — per m
railroadCatenary = 15.0,   — per m
railroadSwitch = 5000.0,   — per instance
railroadBridge = 10000.0,   — per instance
railroadBridgeVol = 11.0,   — per m^3
railroadTunnel = 25000.0,   — per instance
railroadTunnelLen = 1000.0,   — per m

— fraction of the road cost
roadBusLane = .1,
roadTramLane = .4,
}
end

<————— To this; ———————>

function data()
return {
— per m^3
terrainRaise = 6.0,
terrainLower = 7.0,

railroadTrack = 1.0,    — per m
railroadHighSpeedTrack = 1.0,  — per m
railroadCatenary = 1.0,   — per m
railroadSwitch = 1.0,   — per instance
railroadBridge = 1.0,   — per instance
railroadBridgeVol = 1.0,   — per m^3
railroadTunnel = 1.0,   — per instance
railroadTunnelLen = 1.0,   — per m

— fraction of the road cost
roadBusLane = .1,
roadTramLane = .4,
}
end

If you wish to change the costs of all your vehicles then follow this simple example;

Steam/Steamapps/Common/Train Fever/res/models/model/vehicle/train/a3-5_705.mdl

Look for these lines of code;

transportVehicle = {
carrier = “RAIL”
},
availability = {
yearFrom = 1907,
yearTo = 1940
},
cost = {
price = 1100000
},
maintenance = {
runningCosts = 690000,
lifespan = 35

And change your PRICE to price = 1
change running costs to runningCosts = 1

To get this item earlier than the year 1907, change that to 1848 (do this with every vehicle and you will get everything available at the beginning of your game!) However for the Electric Trains you will still have to wait for the correct year for the upgrade to your Railway lines before you can use them;o)
I have thought about experimenting with the lifespan, but as yet haven’t decided to try this, but will try it soon as I get the chance, I may even try altering the passengers amounts and perhaps speed amounts for certain trains…

function data()
return {
— per m^3
terrainRaise = 20.0,
terrainLower = 25.0,

railroadTrack = 1000.0,                — per m
railroadHighSpeedTrack = 2000.0,        — per m
railroadCatenary = 1000.0,            — per m
railroadSwitch = 250000.0,            — per instance
railroadBridge = 1000000.0,            — per instance
railroadBridgeVol = 10000.0,            — per m^3
railroadTunnel = 2500000.0,            — per instance
railroadTunnelLen = 100000.0,            — per m

— fraction of the road cost
roadBusLane = .3,
roadTramLane = .9,
}
end

railroadTrack = 1.0,    – per m
railroadHighSpeedTrack = 1.0,  – per m
railroadCatenary = 1.0,   – per m
railroadSwitch = 1.0,   – per instance
railroadBridge = 1.0,   – per instance
railroadBridgeVol = 1.0,   – per m^3
railroadTunnel = 1.0,   – per instance
railroadTunnelLen = 1.0,   – per m