Transport Fever 3 Bulldoze Refund: Get 75% of Your Money Back

Put a building down in the wrong spot, change your mind, or just want to undo a purchase in Transport Fever 3? The game lets you claw most of the money back, but only for a short while. Bulldoze fast and you recover a fixed share of the price. Wait too long and you get nothing.

Quick answer: Bulldoze a building within 60 seconds of game time after placing it to get 75% of its current price back. At normal speed that window is 15 calendar days. After it closes, removal is free but returns nothing.

Empty meadow beside a dirt road with an account balance of $5,887,445 shown before any building is placed

A Road Depot is built for $185,633 and bulldozed at once for a refund of $139,225, then built again and bulldozed 18 game days later, when the bulldozer shows no refund and the Account does not move.

The refund rule: 75% within 15 in-game days

The game returns 75% of what the building would cost to rebuild right now, provided you remove it inside the 60-second game-time window. That is a flat 25% loss on an immediate undo, and the amount does not shrink as the days tick by. It stays the same until the moment the window closes, then drops to zero.

Those 60 seconds of game time equal 15 calendar days at normal speed, since the game runs four seconds per in-game day. A Road Depot placed for $185,633 showed a refund of exactly $139,225 right after building, which is 75% of that price. Eighteen days later the same depot refunded $0, a full loss of $185,633.

Building	Price paid	Refund inside window
Road Depot	$185,633	$139,225
Road Stop	$30,000	$22,500
Road Depot (after 15 days)	$185,633	$0

How to bulldoze and check the refund first

Click the yellow bulldozer control at the right end of the build-button row in the bottom bar. The tool is active when a yellow-and-black striped band appears along the bottom of the screen.

Point at the building you want to remove. It turns yellow. If you are still inside the window, a label appears at the cursor reading “Refund:” followed by the amount. No label means no money, even though the building still highlights.

Click the building to select it. Two small buttons appear on it: a bulldozer with the tooltip “Confirm Destruction” and an X with the tooltip “Cancel”. A single click only selects. Choose “Confirm Destruction” to finish the job.

You know it worked when the building vanishes and bare ground is left in its place. The refund, if any, lands in your account balance at once. Press Esc or right-click to leave the bulldozer tool without removing anything.

Pointing at a road stop that a line uses adds a yellow warning reading “Main Connection Will Be Interrupted” and “1 Stop Will Be Removed”. Removing it breaks that route.

What the 75% is calculated from

The 75% refund is calculated from the building’s current price on the ground, not from your original payment. This matters if the site had to be levelled.

On untouched ground, the first Road Depot cost $186,825: the $180,000 menu price plus $6,825 for earthworks. The $139,225 refund amounted to 74.5% of the amount paid. Building the depot flattened the site, so constructing the same one there again cost $185,633; 75% of that is exactly $139,225. You get 75% of the menu price and any earthworks still needed, but not the cost of groundwork that no longer needs doing.

A Road Stop placed on an existing road needs no earthworks. There, $30,000 paid returned $22,500, a clean 75%. Roads refund piece by piece rather than as one object.

How game speed and pausing change the real-time window

The 60 seconds are measured in game time, not on your wall clock. That has a few practical effects worth knowing before you rely on the refund.

Pausing stops the timer. A depot built during a pause still had a $139,225 refund available after 90 seconds of paused time.
At normal speed, the refund remained available 50 seconds after construction, but was no longer available at 65 seconds.
At the fastest speed the window passes in roughly 15 real seconds, so a casual “wait a minute” at top speed is far too long.
The calendar limit stays at 15 days, regardless of game speed.

Pause before placing anything. The preview shows a “Costs:” label before you commit, nothing is charged until you click, and a paused game never eats into the refund window while you decide.

What bulldozing does to your balance and upkeep

Placing a building reduces the bottom-bar “Earnings” figure by its full price, and the refund adds back the amount returned. Bulldozing after the refund window has closed changes nothing: the account balance and earnings figure both remain unchanged.

A standing building also incurs annual upkeep. The listed yearly cost for a Road Depot is one sixth of its price: $30,000 for the $180,000 depot. Removing an unneeded structure ends that expense, even if no refund is available. Construction gets more expensive in later eras as station, depot and warehouse prices rise with the year, while the 75% share and 60-second window remain fixed.

Mistakes that cost you the refund

An immediate teardown does not return the full price; you always forfeit 25%.
Expecting partial money back on an old building. After 15 calendar days there is none.
Do not assume the yellow highlight means you’ll get money back. Only the “Refund:” label indicates a refund.
One click selects the building without removing it. Choose “Confirm Destruction” to demolish it.

A few related questions come up often. There is no undo key shown in the bulldozer’s tool hints, so the bulldozer inside the window is itself your undo, at a 25% charge. Previewing a placement costs nothing, since the “Costs:” label appears before the click and no money leaves your account until the building is down. And removing your own depot after the window has closed costs nothing. Treat the refund as a short grace period for second thoughts, not as a way to recover value from anything you have been running for a while.